Nothing Left to Lose
by theredheadedleague
Summary: The newest Avenger manages to befriend and get close to a certain God of Mischief, but everyone's loyalties are tested when forces beyond their control threaten to drive the entire team apart. Post-Ragnarok, but pre-Infinity War.
1. The Newest Avenger

Natasha crossed her arms, looking out one of the windows of the New Avengers Facility as she thought out loud. She turned to look back at some of the others, who had assembled in the kitchen. She kept her voice low as she told them that, "Strange can't just dump someone off on our doorstep and expect us to -"

"He didn't just dump her off here," Tony shook his head, glancing over towards the hallway. "He sent us his best trainee. She's managed to beat him more than once. I wouldn't -"

"She beat him?" Nat scoffed as she leaned against the kitchen counter. "She definitely doesn't look like it. She looks like one of those girls who sits up on the Internet all night, scrolling through pictures of cats or something. She's not a fighter."

"I say we wait and see what she can do," Bruce proposed. "You never know. Not every hero looks like you guys. Some of us look like scientists, at least when we're not angry. Wait until she's out there on a battlefield with us."

"Thanks for the room. Again." A young woman seemed to materialize in the doorway of the kitchen, pushing her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. Nat was right. She looked more like a professional blogger than the next Black Widow or Scarlet Witch. "Stephen definitely got me the best gig out of all of us."

"There were only four of you," Tony reminded her, rifling through the cabinets to look for something to eat. "The rest of them have their own Sanctums to go to, right? He said something about shipping two of them off on planes this morning, and he's keeping another one of you."

"We're his first training class," she nodded, stepping out of the way as he opened the refrigerator. "He's keeping Kyle with him, since he's the newest and still has a lot to learn. Jasmine and Andy are still on their planes, I think. And here I am."

"Hey." Steve walked into the kitchen, fresh from a run around the facility. He looked between all of them, searching for an explanation. "Who's this? Oh, Strange's student, right? That's today."

"Laurel Reid, first in her class of four," Tony told him, tossing a bottle of water over the counter to his friend. "She's working with us now. Laurel, this is -"

"Steve Rogers." She finished his sentence, turning to look at him. "I've read all of your files. Steve Rogers, the star-spangled hero who was frozen for 70-something years but still remained the same Captain America. Tony Stark, tech genius who bought out a ton of Manhattan and built his own super suit. Dr. Bruce Banner, the brilliant scientist who can kick some serious ass in the lab and on a battlefield as the Hulk. Natasha Romanoff, who's skilled in like every form of combat and has advanced weapons training with things I've never even heard of. And Thor, who's literally a god. And all of the others across the world, keeping people safe even if the public never realizes it."

Natasha pursed her lips, admitting, "She's certainly a smart one. I don't know if you read the files on the facility, but we've also got -" She was cut off by a blaring alarm, the signal that told them to suit up and get to the Quinjet. As everyone else dashed for their quarters, she stopped, grabbing Laurel's shoulder. "Go change. We take off in five minutes, with or without you." She jogged away, leaving Laurel alone in the kitchen for a brief second.

When they all met onboard the jet, Laurel dropped into a seat next to Steve, who had transformed into the Cap that she'd seen on the news so many times. He seemed genuinely nice, one of the people she could trust automatically. Well, she would have to trust them all. They were headed into battle and had to have each other's backs. "What are we looking at?" Steve asked as Tony brought up a map.

"Twelve armed mercenaries have hostages in the Russian Embassy. There are six Ambassadors from different countries and their aides inside. An afternoon meeting between a bunch of old Eastern Bloc countries just so happened to be today," Tony read as images of the hostages and hostage-takers appeared on the table as holograms. "The cops have got the area cordoned off already."

"What do they need our help for?" Laurel wondered, watching the holograms incredulously. "Isn't that a job for the police and the FBI?"

"Normally, yeah. But one of them isn't exactly human. We're looking for a holdout from the Cult of Dormammu."

Laurel looked up at him, her focus on the holograms broken almost instantly. "Stephen gave them what they wanted, to be beyond time. They should all be gone by now. This one has to be a new follower, trying to reach that… oneness. Who are we looking for?"

"That's the thing," Tony grimaced as they landed. "It could be any of them. I'd bank on it being one of the hostage-takers that isn't calling the shots. It'll be someone who has the rest of them controlled, but not the obvious choice."

As the group split up and their communication devices crackled to life, Laurel stuck with Steve. She followed him over to where the police chief was talking with an FBI agent from the New York Field Office, listening in as the three of them talked. "We'll have them out in no time," Steve assured them, turning to her as they began walking again. "Okay, kid, this is your kind of fight. What is it you can do again?"

"I practice the Mystic Arts," she said, trailing him as he caught up with Bruce, who was positioned behind the final barricade set up by the police. "I specialize in what Stephen called Perceptive Magic. I can create illusions, I can perceive things… that part's kind of hard to explain, but basically, I can figure out the layout of that building without the blueprints. It's a spatial kid of sense, and I'm good at the spell for it. And I can get people to tell me things. I can't force the truth, but there's a spell that'll make them drop their guard. It always gets words spilling out, even if they've been trained not to say anything."

Bruce and Steve shared a glace. "There's a spell for everything, isn't there?" Bruce asked. "Everyone who studies the Mystic Arts just has a natural talent for some of them."

"Exactly. Is that Natasha on the roof over there?"

Steve nodded, looking to where she was pointing. "She's staked out her spot. Tony'll be up there somewhere too." He reached for his comms link, saying, "We're sending the kid in. She'll be able to tell us which one of them is the target."

"Are you sure?" Thor radioed back. They could see where he was positioned on the other side of the embassy, lining up with a SWAT team.

"I'll be fine," Laurel promised, taking a step out from behind the barricade before anyone could stop her. She snapped her fingers, cloaking herself in the image of a pizza delivery boy. The others watched as she walked right up to the embassy doors, boldly knocking.

One of the doors swung open, a burly man pointing a rifle at her chest. "We didn't order any pizzas, boy."

"The… the cops did?" Laurel said, making her voice quake. She altered the illusion a bit, making the boy look younger, young enough for his voice to break a little more than usual. "They thought… they thought everyone in there would get hungry soon. It's getting late, and… please, I've only been here for a week. My boss doesn't know… he doesn't know who called, he just sent me out. I can't go back with these-"

"Get inside," the man barked, Laurel darting into the building. The others watched as the door closed behind her. Immediately, they began chattering away on the comms lines, trying to come up with a plan. "Give me those." The man grabbed the two boxes she had been carrying, pushing her into the corner of the room, where the Ambassadors and their aides were huddled.

An older woman reached out for her, taking her arm. "Are they coming to get us? They have to let us go now, right?"

Laurel shrugged, watching their captors start eating as the rest of their stomachs growled. "They told me to walk over here, they told me they wouldn't let them get me... " _Now._ "I'm Lee. I just started delivering pizzas last week, and… I'm sorry. What's your name?" _Tell me._ Laurel tried her best to keep her magic invisible, something she had been decent at back at the New York Sanctum. It was always difficult,but she had gotten the hang of it fairly well. But now people's lives depended on it.

The woman's eyes glazed over for a half-second, Laurel being able to see the much-younger eyes behind the vision that she was projecting. "Adria." The half-second was gone, the vision of the older woman shaking her head. "I'm Marge. I just work at the desk here… I'm going to retire soon… I came in to cover for Helen, I shouldn't even be here…"

 _Forget. Forget what you told me. Forget that you told me._ "I'm sorry," Laurel frowned, taking the image's hand. There was a crash near the doors, a crash that sent their captors lunging for their weapons and sent the illusion that was Marge running for cover.

As the doors burst open, their captors began firing automatically. "Let's go, Friday," Laurel heard over their comms system, only realizing later who Tony was talking to. In the moment, she was distracted by the bullets ricocheting off of the Iron Man suit. Instinctively, she stuck her hand out, creating a shield over the hostages as she dropped the illusion and ran to help the others. The group of hostages shared looks of amazement as the stray bullets flying towards them bounced off of the glowing golden shield that wrapped around the group. Marge - Adria - was nowhere to be seen. She had to have been hiding out somewhere, controlling the others from a distance.

More of the Avengers came pouring into the building, Laurel catching a glimpse of Natasha wrestling one of the men to the ground as she ran into the back of them embassy, quickly building a floorplan in her mind. There was only one place Adria could have disappeared to, and Laurel knew exactly what she was doing.

Sure enough, there was the beginning of a portal opening up on the wall when she reached the records room. Adria, now free of the illusions he had put up, was busy widening the portal when Laurel burst in, not giving her any time to react. Ignoring the fight going on outside, Laurel conjured an exact duplicate of herself, Adria immediately flinging a conjured ball of fire towards the original. Both Laurels rolled out of the way, taking the second that Adria used to look back at the portal to become indistinguishable.

As her body double fought, Laurel reached into her pocket, grabbing the Sling Ring that she had stowed there back at the Avengers Facility. With a wave of her hand, she conjured another portal, one that she knew would lead to the dimension that Dormammu and his followers now inhabited.

An explosion rocked the room, Laurel grabbing Adria and flinging her into the portal that she had created. She waved her hand again, the portal swallowing up the rift in space that Adria had been creating. Closing her fist, Laurel closed the portal and disintegrated her body double, uniting Adria with the infinite life and the infinite oneness that she had been trying to become a part of.

Outside, everything had fallen silent as Adria's grip on their captors was broken. The men dropped their weapons, looking around and realizing what they had gotten themselves into. Laurel made her way back into the entranceway to the embassy as the SWAT team began making arrests. The rest of the Avengers had gathered by a police barricade, watching as people were being led out of the building. Natasha was the first to greet her when she caught up with them. "I underestimated you, kid. Good job. Now let's get out of here before they start taking pictures."

"Let's get dinner," Tony proposed. "Our usual shawarma place is down the block."

When they landed back at the Avengers Facility, they all went their separate ways, getting cleaned up from the battle. Laurel went to her room, shedding her battle gear and hopping into the shower. It felt good to wash away all of the dirt and grime of the battle, watching the dust of the building swirl down the drain.

The Avengers Facility was completely different from the New York Sanctum, but she could see a future for herself here. The others were good people, and, now that she had proved herself in battle, even the most skeptical of them knew that she could hold her own. There was still a lot to learn, a lot of magic to practice, but it would come with time.

 _A lot of magic to practice_ , she thought as she dried herself off and discovered the laundry chute in her closet. _Maybe there are books on magic here. Tony said something about a library. What was it? "Thousands of real books, and any book you want on your tablet", or something like that? You should go find the library._

By the time she ventured down to the library, most of the others had gone to bed or were holed up in their rooms. Half of the hallway lights had been turned off, and the background humming of all of the technology in the facility was the only thing she could hear, aside from Bruce making tea in the kitchen. She waved to him as she made her way over to the expansive library, Bruce giving her a smile and waving back.

Pulling open the thick metal door of the library, Laurel could immediately tell that someone else was there. While most of the shelves were dark, there was a soft glowing light in the corner, near a window that looked over half of the facility. There was a man perched in one of the armchairs in the corner, engrossed in a book. He had draped his legs over the side of the chair, turning a page as she approached. The long dark hair, the black and green clothes, she hadn't seen them before. Whoever he was, he hadn't been fighting with them.

"Hi. Nice to see I'm not the only one up in the library this late."

He looked up as she approached, regarding her coolly. "Laurel Reid, Master of the Mystic Arts, with a specialty in perception, illusion, and mental manipulation. The most promising of Stephen Strange's trainees, though Midgard offers few opportunities for a real challenge. The newest Avenger."

"I'm sorry, but they didn't tell me about you. I thought I'd read the files on everyone who lives here, but…"

Setting his book in his lap, the man introduced himself, though he didn't bother to get up. "I am the Prince of Asgard, the Odinson, the rightful king of Jotunheim, and the God of Mischief."

Laurel crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. "Okay, God of Mischief, do you have a real name?"

"I'm Loki. You may have heard of me."


	2. The Loki in the Library

Even though she had only been in the library long enough to find a book, Laurel already had plenty of questions. Who was this God of mischief? If he really was as powerful as he claimed, why didn't he come to fight with them? And was he really the Loki that she had read about? He hardly seemed like the dangerous supervillain that everyone made him out to be.

As she made breakfast the next morning, Laurel resolved to find out as much as she could about her new neighbor. She had already figured out that his quarters were right next to the library, thanks to the extensive information on the facility that they had access to. It seemed like he was there a lot, at least from what she had observed. "Morning," Steve's voice said, Laurel turning to see him walking in and turning the coffeemaker on. "How'd you sleep? I know the first night or two here can be rough."

"Pretty well." Laurel took two coffee mugs out of a cabinet, searching for the sugar as she asked, "There's a man in the library… is he really the Loki all of those files warned me about?"

"He is. We've got him on house arrest right now. He's only allowed out on supervised trips, or if we really need him in battle. Do you take milk in your coffee?"

"Please. He doesn't do much other than read, then, does he?"

Steve shook his head, pouring coffee for both of them. "He'll practice his magic outside sometimes. But no, he doesn't associate with us all that much. When he does, it's usually just saying hi when he comes in here to find something to eat."

Life in the Avengers Facility was fairly predictable, unless something came up that required their immediate attention. Everyone had their own little patterns, but groups of them would meet up for meals. No one had a set turn to cook, but invariably, someone would end up in the kitchen making enough food for everyone. The others would come by to grab plates and bowls when they were free, dropping into seats to eat with each other. Their days revolved around training and research, but their nights would vary.

Some of them, like Steve, were always up early, going for a run before the others rolled out of bed and headed for the training rooms. While Tony and Bruce would lock themselves away in their labs for hours, Thor, Steve, Natasha, and Laurel would head to the training rooms, exercising and building their skills for hours at a time. Almost invariably someone else would stop by - Sam Wilson was a popular visitor, coming to train with them and take off later in the day. Tony and Bruce would join them during breaks in their research, coming to test out changes to their suits or to bother everyone else. Well, that was mostly Tony, who would burst into the training rooms, tell a few jokes, and offer his "advice" while the others were working. Even if he had to go into New York City itself to oversee his business, he could still find time to join the rest of his team in the training rooms.

While everyone had their specific skills to practice, Laurel made sure to try to branch out as much as she could. Stephen Strange had taught her a lot, but the Mystic Arts had their limitis. Sometimes, as she found out while training with Natasha, it was just easier to roll into someone and take out their kneecaps, or shoot from a distance. Steve taught her as much as he could about agility and endurance, and Natasha always had a new weapons lesson. When they were busy, she would flex her magic skills, practicing the spells she had learned under Strange's teaching and expanding her knowledge as much as she could.

Digging out as many books on the Mystic Arts as she could from the recesses of the library, Laurel made a list of every one, resolving to master a new spell every couple of days. She would spend her evenings in there, reading about new and ancient spells and taking notes on the ones that would be the most useful in battle. Pepper had sent her all sorts of information on the others, on the history of the Avengers, and on S.H.I.E.L.D., which Laurel devoured.

She fell into a pattern of leaving dinner at a somewhat normal time, going to wash up and change, and then heading out from the main facility and towards the library. Occasionally, if some of the others were watching a movie or playing a game in the main living room, she would join them. Otherwise, everyone went their separate ways, splitting up to get some extra sleep, enjoy some downtime, or, in Bruce and Tony's cases, head back to their labs for a few more hours. Laurel made sure to stop by and see what they were working on, especially if it was late at night and the lights in the labs were still on. Tony or Bruce would patiently explain what was sitting on the lab bench in front of them, whether it be a prototype piece of tech or a chemical solution that had turned a strange color. Laurel would nod along, entranced by what she was seeing, even if she couldn't understand all of the science behind it.

Practically every night, though, she would end up in the library with one of her magic books, or her tablet, where she read all of the information Pepper had forwarded to her. Loki was always there, in the same spot he had been in the first night she decided to explore the library. He had a different book in his hands almost every night, sitting there quietly as she hunted down a new book or opened the one she had been working on the night before.

At first, he would read silently, only looking up when she walked in and when she closed her book, setting it on the table next to the chair that she had claimed as hers. He would move, though, sometimes getting up to get a drink or shifting in his chair into a more comfortable position. He never said anything, though, even when Laurel took over the armchair next to him. There were plenty of other chairs scattered around the expansive library, but these two were the only ones by the window that looked out on the skyline and over half of the facility.

She noticed more and more small things about him, like the way he would sometimes conjure a few green sparks with his fingertips, making them dance around the arm of his chair or across the cover of his book. Or how he refused to sit in a chair normally, preferring to throw his legs over one of the arms and recline as much as he could. How he never hummed to himself or made much noise at all, but how the sparks would move differently depending on what he was reading, and, she assumed, how he felt about it.

After a particularly long day of training, Laurel dropped into her usual spot and started to read, but looked up and caught Loki's eye. He had just closed his book, resolving to get up and find another, when he noticed that she had been conjuring a ball of light in her hand, tossing it absentmindedly as she read. He hesitated for a second, Laurel sitting up in her chair just a little bit more. "What is that?" she asked, nodding towards the book he had in his hand. "I noticed yesterday the lights were different. The sparks you're usually fiddling with, I mean. You've been making animals out of them lately."

"It's about ancient Celtic magic, if you must know," he replied coolly. "The Celts were deeply connected to nature."

"Do you mind if I read it? I'm almost done with this one." She lifted the book she had been engrossed in, showing him that she only had a couple of pages left. "I've been working with the Mystic Arts that Stephen Strange teaches, but I ought to start trying to branch out. It seems like it works just the same."

"Maybe not for a mortal like you," he cautioned, although he handed the book over to her anyway. "Magic comes a little easier for a god."

"It won't stop me from trying."

Loki nodded, disappearing between the stacks of books as Laurel went back to reading. That was the first real conversation that she had had with him. Probably also the longest conversation any of them would have had with him in a while, since he hardly ever joined them in the main facility.

Just like that, though, they started recommending books to each other. At first, it was just Laurel asking if he had read "this one yet. It's pretty informative. At least, I thought so." He accepted some of them, and he would actually read them. He at least made it seem like that.

One night, though, Laurel was sitting in her usual spot when Loki closed the book he had been pouring over. She was used to this now, him closing his book, reaching for his drink, and then getting up, losing himself in the shelves for a bit before emerging with a new book and settling down again. But this time, he stood, taking a few steps and stopping next to her chair. When she looked up, he offered the book he had just finished. "I think you'll like this."

"Oh, I… thanks," she smiled, Loki nodding and heading off to find another book. As she watched his disappear into the depths of the library, she glanced down at the cover of the book. _Magic of the Ancient Greeks: The Magic Behind the Myths._

When Loki returned, he settled into his chair, Laurel stopping him before he could crack open his next read. "Can I ask you something?"

"You already did." He opened his book, not making eye contact with her.

"I see you reading all of this stuff on different kinds of magic, and you at least say that you're good at all of them. How powerful are you, really?"

This made Loki look up. Smirking, he told her that, "I can topple empires and lay entire cities to waste. I could command an army of people literally begging to obey me and follow me into battle if I felt like it. I can raze this entire facility by snapping my fingers. I could wipe New York off of the map tonight if I decided to."

"Then why don't you?"

"You really haven't done your homework," he scoffed, shaking his head.

Laurel frowned a bit, "Fine, then. Who taught you all of your magic? You surely weren't born some sort of all-powerful sorcerer."

"My mother."

She pursed her lips, pressing for more information. "That certainly sounded like you closed the book on that one, but okay."

"My mother saw what I could be. Thor was always Father's protege, always the one he had lined up to take the throne. He taught him how to wield the power of a thunder god, to reign it in to rule Asgard. But my mother knew that… I am the stronger one. I am the one who would have brought Asgard the glory it deserves," he said, glowering a bit in the half-light of the library.

"It was always Thor, wasn't it?" Sitting up and crossing her legs in the chair, Laurel put her book aside. She held onto her cup of tea as she continued, "He's the favorite, isn't he?"

"My brother is the favorite across the Nine Realms. He is Father's favorite, and the one he has designated to rule Asgard," Loki said, closing his book again. "I was never meant to be in the City of Asgard, let alone a prince."

"What do you mean? You're the son of their king."

"I am the son of a Frost Giant, adopted by Odin," he corrected as Laurel took a sip of her tea. "I was never destined to be the favorite. In the end, I was destined to be the one they untied against. I deserve the throne just as much as my brother, but it will always be denied to me, like i have been denied their favor my entire life. My mother was the only one who saw what I could be." He paused, finally meeting her eye. "She was murdered."

They sat up talking for a little while longer, though Laurel didn't press for many more details. He had already told her enough, and if he wanted to tell her more, he would. Eventually. But she could tell that, at least for now, he was done revealing things. She had managed to get him to crack, though, even if it was just a little bit.

When Laurel stretched, noticing how late it was, Loki nodded, closing his book and walking out of the library with her. As they split off to head for their separate quarters, he turned back to her, saying, "Goodnight, Laurel."

"Goodnight, Loki," she smiled, watching him turn and head into his room.

From then on, they would talk a bit, the silences becoming easier just as their conversations became easier. They would pass books back and forth, falling into comfortable silences as they read, but never failing to say hello and goodnight to each other. It became a nightly ritual, even when Laurel joined the others watching movies or playing Monopoly (Steve's favorite, even though it drove the others crazy as Tony insisted on buying up everything he could and making so many deals that none of them could keep them all straight in their heads). Invariably, she would come into the library, even if it was just to read for ten or fifteen minutes before bed. Loki would start to wonder where she was if she hadn't shown up around her normal time. He'd even started to text her on occasion, asking if she could bring tea when she came to the library or wondering why she was running late.

The others knew she would disappear to the library, but they knew nothing of the strange sort of friendship that she and Loki had struck up. All they knew was that she spent time holed up with her books, and her magical abilities were getting better because of all of the time she put in. It was for the best, Loki had said, since the others still didn't trust him, and probably never would. Besides, this was the only time that he was sure that his brother wouldn't show up to bother him, because Thor knew better than to disturb Laurel when she was reading. She'd almost slung a curse at him when he surprised her in the kitchen, so he had learned quickly.


	3. The Rooftop

A.N.: Thank you all so much for your support! I love writing this and I can't wait to see where it all goes... I've already got some major plot twists, some cute stuff, and lots of slow-burning planned. Enjoy!

* * *

Music pounding in her ears, Laurel kept running. Steve and Sam were racing around the outside of the facility, but the cooling fall air and the temptation of climate-controlled air kept Laurel inside. She would wave or nod at them every time they passed the window as she logged mile after mile on the treadmill. Taking another sip of water, she gritted her teeth, continuing to run as she saw Steve and Sam's figures getting closer to the window again.

There was a crash in one of the rooms off of to the side. Nat had killed another dummy. Laurel wasn't quite sure what she was working on, but every time Nat made another kill, something clattered to the floor. Thor was in the main room with her, lifting weights as she ran. She could see him mouthing the words to whatever song he currently had on repeat, which made her laugh a little. Tony had finally sold him on the concept of wireless headphones, which he thought were absolutely amazing. If only they could get him to remember to charge them. Tony himself was sparring with Bruce, bouncing a couple ideas for improvements to their communication systems off of him as they fought.

As Laurel finally slowed down and stopped running, she stretched, looking around. She could feel someone's eyes on her, but everyone was busy, off in their own worlds. Tony and Bruce were still batting ideas around as they trained. Nat was still knocking out dummies in another room. Thor was occupied with adding another weight plate to the machine he was working with. Sam and Steve had just passed by, disappearing as they made their way around the training complex again. She took another swig of water, taking a deep breath as she re-tied her hair. Someone was definitely watching her.

Looking up to the oval track that ran above the main training floor, she saw something shimmering in the sunlight. It was subtle, but there was a green shimmering in the sunlight. She smiled to herself, the illusion dissolving to reveal Loki standing there, watching over all of them. Giving him a small wave, she watched as he disappeared again. The spot still shimmered, though, so she could tell that he hadn't left entirely.

"Laurel!" Thor called her over, asking how to add another song to his playlist. Dutifully, she showed him how to search for a song on his phone and add it, Thor thanking her profusely. "You know," he said, stopping her before she could move, "my brother seems to think quite highly of you."

"He does?" she asked, trying not to betray the fact that she was still out of breath from running. "He doesn't say much about that."

"He does. He tells me you practice your spellwork in the library every night, and that you have a natural gift."

"Well I'll have to thank him." She looked back to where the air still shimmered a bit, up on the track.

"He also tells me that you make a point to say goodnight to him when you head off to sleep." He paused, taking a breath as he started his next set. Lowering his voice a little, Thor added, "I think you are good for him as well. Clearly he does not join us very much, but I do think your company does him good."

"Thanks," Laurel smiled. "I won't bother you any more. I should let you get back to your workout. I've got to hit the showers and start working on dinner. I found a new recipe the other day that we'll all enjoy."

"I'll look forward to it." With that, Thor was back to his workout, lost in the music again.

Laurel waved goodbye to the others, leaving the training complex and heading for the stairs. Her legs were killing her as she climbed up, but it wasn't a long trip. Carefully opening the door, she snapped her fingers, her figure slowly fading to blend in with the background. She could see Loki leaning on the railing, the only thing that kept anyone running around the track from plummeting down onto the workout equipment below. And he could see her, making her way over to him. To everyone else, they were invisible. "Hey. Sorry that I'm all sweaty."

"I grew up with Thor for a brother. I'm used to much worse." He cracked a smile, turning to her and looking her up and down. "Looks like you had a hell of a workout."

"How long were you hanging out up here before I noticed you?"

"Long enough. Don't worry, I don't spy on you all of the time."

"You'd better not," she laughed. "What did you come to find me for that's so important you couldn't text about it? You're hardly ever out here with the rest of us."

"I have something to show you."

"What did you find?" Both of them looked down to see Bruce gazing up at the track, shaking his head before going to get more water.

"Not now," he teased, "not when you're coming out of the gym. Meet me in the library tonight."

"Loki, you know I always do. What's this about?"

"A surprise. You'll like it. Now go get cleaned up." Rolling her eyes, Laurel left, Loki remaining on the balcony.

As she made dinner, Laurel could only think of Loki and whatever he had in store. It would stand to reason that she should be a bit concerned, since the God of Mischief's surprises did not often bode well for anyone. Steve stopped in ot say hi and grab a drink, chatting with her while she was cooking before he went off to shower and change. When dinner time rolled around, he was the first one back, grabbing a stack of plates and setting them in the center of the table.

That's what they would do, since they all got home or finished training at different times. One of them would make dinner, and they would leave a stack of plates out, everyone taking a plate and finding themselves food until all of the plates were gone and they had all been fed. They would usually eat in groups of twos or threes, but the cast always rotated. "Eight plates, eight forks," Steve said, counting one more time as Laurel carefully set a baking dish down on the table. "Tony and Pepper had to run into the city. They won't be back until late, but I figure I'll leave enough plates for everybody anyways."

"Thanks, Steve. Let me hunt down the stuff for salad and double check that I turned the oven off… feel free to start taking food, though. Eat it while it's hot."

When she came back to the dining room, she found Bruce and Steve sitting there, eating and talking. She dropped into a chair, taking some food for herself as the door at the end of the hall opened. Wordlessly, Loki came in, sitting down next to her and reaching for a plate. The corner of Laurel's mouth crept up into a bit of a smile as she realized that this was the first time he was actually eating with them, instead of grabbing food and heading back to his quarters. Steve and Bruce shared a glance, but they ultimately just kept talking, Laurel interjecting once or twice.

She turned to Loki, asking him something about the book she had seen him reading the night before. The two of them started talking, which surprised Steve and Bruce even more. He even volunteered to help her clean up from dinner, perching on the kitchen counter as she put plates into the dishwasher. When she was done, though, he disappeared again, leaving her to wonder what lay in store.

When it was finally time for her to head to the library, she practically jogged to the other side of the facility, inly to find that Loki wasn't in his usual spot. The door opened just as she was about to sit down, though, Laurel turning to see him walking in with a book tucked under his arm. "Follow me," he instructed, leading her back to where the shelves of magic and Mystic Arts books sat. He removed two of them from a shelf, pushing a lever that had been hidden behind them. They both took a step back as the shelf slid aside, revealing a staircase. "Ladies first."

Laurel took the initiative, climbing the stairs and pushing open the door at the top. The two of them came out onto the roof of the library, Laurel looking around curiously. "You can look over the entire facility from here," she marveled, "and the New York skyline. And look at the stars!" She turned back to him, adding, "Thank you for showing me -"

"This is for you. I've been watching you in the library, reading about magic and the Mystic Arts. I've seen you conjuring things in the palm of your hand, but I also know that a lot of spells require more space to practice in," he told her, coming to stand next to her and look over the rest of the complex. "I know you practice some of them in the training rooms, but they can be fairly small, and if anything goes wrong, there are always people there that you may inadvertently injure. t's safe out here. There's nothing for you to accidentally destroy, and there's no one you could hurt."

"It's perfect," she beamed, reflexively turning to give him a hug. "Oh, sorry." She let go of him almost instantly, realizing how his back had stifferend when she touched him.

"It's alright. I think you should come out here and practice every couple of nights or so. It wouldn't cut down on your reading time all that much. Now why don't you practice that spell you were trying to master last night?"

"What about you?"

He turned away, saying, "I promise I won't go far." As she raised her hands to begin the spell, he conjured a chair, sitting down near the door and opening his book, reading by the light of a couple green flames that floated near his head.


	4. Asgardian Magic

It was a particularly cool morning when Laurel went outside, thinking that she would go for a walk before she spent her day holed up inside. She had been putting off reading about the history of the facility, S.H.I.E.L.D., and some of their operatives across the world. Instead, she had been practicing magic and reading about new spells to try when she isn't sitting up talking to Loki. She would be stuck in the main living room all day, she had decided, taking notes and figuring out how all of the puzzle pieces of the Avengers story fit together.

As she walked, she noticed a figure near the treeline, gold and green sparks swirling around him. Getting closer, she could see that Loki was sitting there, his legs crossed in front of him as he held his hand over the ground, repeatedly making flowers grow and shrink back into the earth. "Hey, you." He looked up, smiling as he saw her approaching. "What are you up to?"

"Environmental manipulation," he told her. "You start with tings like this, and ultimately learn to control the Earth."

"Mhm. So you're growing flowers as a means of world domination?" She laughed and sat down beside him, Loki extending his arm and wrapping her legs in vines. "Ah, I see." The vines retracted as he kept working, this time growing a few sprigs of lavender. Instead of making them shrink back into the ground, he picked them and handed them over to her absentmindedly, starting to grow more complex plants now. "Thank you." Laurel held her hand out, making a few daisies sprout out of the ground. "I'd make you a laurel tree, but that would be kind of hard to bring inside."

Loki furrowed his brow, concentrating on trying to make some sort of bush sprout in front of them. "You must have learned that recently. I don't think Strange spends his time teaching you to grow flowers."

"I didn't get it from Stephen. It's from those Celtic books you told me to read."

"Hmm."

"Hmm?"

"I'm doing this the Asgardian way, which, frankly, is far superior to Celtic magic," Loki told her, both of them watching as he made flowers bloom on the bush. "What shall I try next? Blackberries?"

Laurel shrugged, voicing her doubts. "I don't know if you can make them grow from that, but you can try. If Asgardian magic really is that good, you should be able to."

He gave her a look that said, "just you wait", holding his hand out and making the flowers shrink, turning darker and curling in on themselves until they had turned into berries. He grabbed a handful, passing her some and tossing the rest of them in his mouth. "Asgardian magic really is that good."

They did taste good. And she was impressed that he could make the plant produce fruit that didn't naturally grow on it. It must have involved reworking the internal chemical structures of the plant. "Teach me."

"No."

"No? Just like that?" She stopped sprouting smarocks from the grass, turning to look at him. He continued his work on the blackberry bush, not bothering to afford her any eye contact. "I've known you for how long now? I'd say we're… well, not friends in the traditional sense, but we know more of each other's shit than the others do. You could at least try and help me."

"No. You can't handle Asgardian magic."

"Try me," she dared him, crossing her arms. "It can't be that difficult."

Stopping his work, he finally met her eye. He held up his palm, creating a glittering green vision of an alien planet. "Asgardian magic has the power to raze cities and destroy planets. It's far more powerful than the Mystic Arts that you have become accustomed to, more powerful than the Celtic magic that you have been so recently taken with, more powerful than any kind of magic from this realm. It is more difficult to master and it is harder to control. It is meant for Asgardians to wield. I will teach you, but you must realize that in all likelihood, you won't be able to master it."

"I have to get some work done now, but how about later tonight?" she proposed, already excited to learn. "I'll meet you on the roof?"

"Alright," he assented, saying nothing more.

Laurel practiced her magic for a little while longer before standing, brushing the grass off of her legs and telling him to stay put. She went to fetch her tablet, stowing it under her arm and grabbing drinks for the both of them. "Laurel, there's no way that's Loki out there with you, is it?" Natasha asked, looking out of the window. "I don't think I've seen him outside in a long time."

"He's not technically off the premises, so he's allowed to be out there, and he's not doing anything dangerous."

Nat squinted, saying, "He's growing plants out there, I think." She shook her head, adding, "I don't know what he's up to half of the time, but I would be very careful about trusting any of it. He's always got a plan."

Laurel sighed. "Nat, he's just growing plants. I don't think he's scheming to take over the facility with shrubbery or anything. All he's done is grow a wall of blackberry bushes."

"I'm just warning you," she offered as Laurel began walking towards the door again. "He has an endgame. I don't know what it is yet, but that's why we're keeping an eye on him. You've read the files. You know what he's capable of."

 _He's actually capable of being a decent person, Nat. He's capable of not destroying everything he touches. He's capable of being - well, not perfectly pleasant, but nice enough._ Laurel made her way back to where Loki was sitting under a tree, practicing his magic. "I didn't move," he beamed proudly, as if he was expecting a reward.

"Dang it, I forgot to bring treats," Laurel laughed, handing him a drink as she sat down. "Looks like you've got enough berries growing here to feed the entire facility, though. Maybe you should move them over to the greenhouses."

Loki waved his hand, all of the plants disappearing. "I think I'll try an orange tree next."

"In New York?"

"It's magic, Laurel. You really think I'm limited by the climate?"

So Loki sat there, practicing growing orange trees out of nowhere. Laurel sat and read, occasionally looking up to see what he was working on. He managed to master a wide variety of trees, vines, and flowers, handing Laurel a couple of each of them. Before she knew it, she had amassed a full bouquet of flowers and a pile of fruit. Meanwhile, she finished file after file, sent some emails, and caught up on business. They parted ways when they went inside for lunch, but she was proud that she had managed to get him outside of his room and the library.

When it was finally time for her to head to the library, Laurel stowed her laptop away in her room, grabbed her phone, and set out for the rooftop. Loki was already there, swirling pillars of green and gold light illuminating the flat roof that they had used to practice spellwork for weeks now. He sat on the edge of the roof, his legs hanging over the two-story drop. Long ago he had put up a forcefield, just in case one of Laurel's spells backfired and sent her over the edge, but she still approached the ledge with abit of apprehension. "Hey." Sitting down next to him, she watched as he twirled a couple of sparks around in the air.

"You really want to learn Asgardian magic?"

"If you're willing to teach me."

"I've already made a pile of books for you to read on the subject. They're next to your chair," he admitted, standing. He offered a hand to help her up, Laurel not registering how much of a symbolic gesture it was until a moment later. He never touched anyone. That just wasn't Loki. Steve and Thor were huggers, never shy about giving people bear hugs when they needed them. Tony would pat you on the back when you'd done a good job. Bruce was always ready to offer a comforting hand. Nat less so, but she still offered high-fives on occasion. But Loki, Loki never touched anyone. He never really associated with anyone, but when he did, he absolutely refused to touch them. But he had extended a cold hand, Laurel finally realizing how much of an odd friendship that they had struck up.

Excitedly, Laurel looked to him and asked, "What's first?"

"Light."

"Light?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Light is… there's got to be something more than that."

Loki nodded, conjuring a glowing ball of green light. "It's the easiest, and one of the least dangerous things you can work with. Remember, Asgardian magic is not meant for mortals. I hesitate to admit it, but I wouldn't want to see you blow yourself up. Now hold out your hand." She obeyed, Loki passing her the ball of light. She held it for a second, tossing it into the air and catching it with ease. "Now I'm going to stop casting it myself. Take over for me."

"Take over for you? How - " The flame had already shrunk to the size of a pea, Laurel concentrating as hard as she could on keeping it alive. It lasted for a minute, flickering out and dissolving.

"Better than nothing," Loki shrugged, conjuring another ball of light. "Try again." He tossed the ball over, conjuring yet another to play with while Laurel focused on keeping thisbone alive.

Twelve tries later, she turned to see that he was juggling green and gold balls of light. "I got it, look!" He smiled, seeing the baseball-sized ball of light in her hands. "I don't know how, but I got it!"

"Now let it die out and conjure in on your own," he instructed, taking a seat in the ledge again. Laurel decided to join him, trying to summon even a spark of light as he continued to juggle.

"You're not giving me much advice here, you know," she frowned, having managed to create a tiny spark that died out within seconds.

Loki scoffed, turning to look at her in the green and golden light. "You already know how magic works. It comes from the person, the universe, or the dimension. The Midgardian Mystic Arts focus on the universal and dimensional energies, but Asgardian magic draws on the person, which is why it is so difficult for you Midgardians. If you aren't careful, it will drain you. That is why Strange teaches the way he does, because magic coming from inside the person has killed mortals trying to wield it. That is also why I cannot teach you all that much, or you would quite literally burst into flames. If you even push your limits, you could get very sick."

Creating another spark in her hands, Laurel nodded. "I'm not getting tired, though. The books said it would happen."

"You will only feel it if you overextend yourself. I would recommend against that."

By the end of the night, she had managed to conjure a ball of light the size of a grape. Loki said it was a whole lot of progress for one night, but she had still wanted to practice more. It was nearing one in the morning, though, so they decided to part ways and try to do more spell work in another day or two. As she lay in bed that night, Laurel kept snapping her fingers, creating a couple of sparks that would light up the room before disintegrating. Most of them were blue and silver, her colors, even though she was already better at green and gold.


	5. I Would Be Honored

Going running with Steve was tough, even normally. On a good day, Sam was the only one who stood a chance at keeping up with him, and even then, he was winded by the time Steve had just started to break a sweat. Laurel could hold her own against him, but Steve could probably run back-to-back marathons without much stress at all. This time, though, Laurel hadn't been able to sleep, so she was exhausted the second she walked into the training complex, let alone when she got on the treadmill. Steve had already started running, nodding hello as she walked into the gym. They had been planning on a run through the woods near the facility, but their plans had been scrapped when they woke up to pouring rain. "Morning," he smiled, speeding up a bit more as she started to stretch.

"Morning. How long have you been here?" She set her water bottle in the cup holder of her treadmill, starting to walk as she fiddled with the settings. "I don't even want to know how many miles you've logged already."

"Just about twenty minutes. I got caught up talking with Tony in the labs. He's got new heart rate monitors for us to try out." Steve held up his wrist, showing her what looked like a watch. "He designed different ones for all of us. It's supposed to track workouts, work as a radio, and show simple holograms. There's also a telephone function that I haven't quite figured out. Somehow I keep calling Thor, and he has no idea how to work it either."

Laurel laughed, resolving to swing by Tony's lab and pick hers up on the way to a post-gym protein shake and a shower. But first was a marathon with Steve, and then she wanted to work on her archery skills. Nat's friend Clint was indisputably the best archer in the world, and he'd been working with her when he stopped by to visit for Nat's birthday. He had taken some time off to be with his kids, which none of them could blame him for, but they all missed him, Nat most of all.

All Laurel had to do now was practice, since he'd taught her so much in the short time that he was there. She had thought about bewitching the arrows for accuracy, but nothing Stephen Strange had taught her would have been much help. Maybe Loki would know a spell to help. _Ask him later. You'll be doing magic work with him anyway. He must know something. He's practically got a spell for everything._

Now matching Steve's pace, Laurel looked around the gym. Bruce was cycling with a book in his hands. Thor swam laps over in the pool that ran al the way up to the big bay window. Tony was off in his lab, but would join them eventually. Nat was on a conference call with S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and King T'Challa over in Wakanda, for once not in one of the training rooms. In her place was Peter Parker, who had come to visit from the city. He was busy lifting weights, Thor shouting out advice every time he reached the edge of the pool. Peter and Laurel had taken to each other quickly. Their skill sets were extremely different, but they had fun training together. Laurel had become somewhat of an older sister to him, offering advice on everything from girls (much better advice than Tony had to offer) to school projects (at least when it came to papers - Tony had a monopoly on lab reports and physics practice sheets) and everything in between.

Reaching for her water bottle, Laurel realized that it was full. But that was impossible. She'd been chugging water for a while now, since trying to keep up with Steve left almost all of them dehydrated. Shrugging it off, she set her water bottle back down, watching as it refilled automatically. Now curious, she waited a little while, repeating the procedure and watching as her water miraculously refilled again. So she looked up for a second, seeing a green glimmer on the track above her. She smiled to herself, continuing on her run and letting Loki continue to work his magic.

When she finally moved to a training room, she could feel a presence waiting for her. She'd gotten fairly good at figuring out when Loki was lurking around, invisible to everyone but her. As she set up a target, took her position, and reached for an arrow, Loki slowly materialized again, sitting against the wall behind her. "Hi there. Thanks for not letting me die of dehydration. Steve's superhuman, I swear. Wait, he actually is. But still, the man could probably run around the entire world and still have enough energy for a triathlon."

"Nice shot. Move your elbow up a bit more on the next one if you want a real kill shot. There you go." He watched her shoot in silence, only talking again when she went to retrieve her arrows. "Are you going to that charity gala thing tomorrow?"

"I can't wait," Laurel admitted, pulling arrows out of the target. "Even better, tomorrow's Halloween. It's always been my favorite holiday, and the gala lined up with it perfectly. It'll be a great way to spend the day. Besides, the world has to see the newest Avenger tomorrow. Tony would force me to go, even if I didn't want to. He'd drag me out in my pajamas if he had to. Are you going?"

She walked back to where she had been shooting from, setting her arrows down in a pile at her feet. "I've been told that it's one of my few approved outings and that I'm being extended an invitation. I may."

"You may? Agh, damn it, I didn't notice that one of these is broken…" Tossing the arrow aside for the time being, she lined up another shot and let it fly, continuing, "What do you mean you may? It's a chance to get out of the facility and do something that isn't fighting or running for your life. You should go."

Loki shook his head, watching her draw another arrow back. "The general public isn't all that fond of me. Never has been, never will be. I would rather avoid them, if given the choice."

"You can't spend Halloween holed up here," she protested. "For a God of Mischief, Halloween should be a big thing. Even if you have to put up with regular people for a night. Besides, it'll be incredibly lonely without the rest of us here."

Rolling his eyes, he reminded her that, "I spend my days on my own. You're the only person that I consistently talk to. Well, aside from my brother. As for the public… it's not just that I would like to avoid them, but Laurel, you must realize that they actively hate me. There is a reason I've been imprisoned here."

Laurel set her bow down, crossing her arms. "You could get up and leave any time you want. I'm fairly certain that you already do. I mean, you can't be in the library all the time. Besides, you're not a bad person."

Not meeting her eye, Loki mumbled, "You've read about what I've done. You know how the others talk about me. Not even my brother trusts me. How do you think the rest of the Midgardians would react to my being there?"

"You're not a bad person." She came to sit down across from him, criss-crossing her legs and saying, "You've hurt people, a lot of people. Nat's fond of telling me exactly how many people you've killed, and the others… well, I see how they look at you, and I know they aren't big fans of me spending my evenings in the library with you. But you've also changed, and they don't realize it."

"I am a monster." His voice was almost hollow now, something she had only heard once before, late one night when he was talking about the pain of losing his mother. "I am still a monster, and you cannot change that."

"No." She reached out for his hand, shaking her head. "They might think you're a monster, but they haven't talked to you. They haven't seen how you've changed, what you're like now. Hell, they probably know nothing about you other than what they've read in the papers. They don't understand that there's so much -"

"I'll go," he interrupted, if only to get her to stop talking in a voice that sounded so sweet and so full of pity. "It's fine, I'll go."

"What? I thought you didn't want to have to be subject to an entire night of other people, especially people who don't like you at all." Laurel raised an eyebrow, wondering if he had suddenly thought of some sort of clever plan that would end up derailing the entire evening.

"It's your favorite holiday. You said it yourself," he reminded her. "You deserve to have a good Halloween. And you are going to be on the world's stage tomorrow night, when everyone gets to see the newest Avenger in more than just grainy photographs and tabloid magazines. It might be framed as a charity gala, but there will be a lot of people there to see you and figure out just who you are. If things were different and I was the one being thrust into the spotlight, especially by Tony Stark, of all people, I would want a friend with me."

Laurel smiled, squeezing the had she had realized that she had never dropped. "A friend? I - do you actually want to go with me?"

"I would be honored."

* * *

A.N.: A bit of a short chapter since I've been busy moving, but I can't wait for the next one. Thank you all so much for your comments, messages, and support. I've gotten so much feedback even tho this story is still pretty short, and it means a lot! Thank you so much, loves!


	6. The Gala

"'The Red Laurel'? It's clever, I'll have to give them that," Nat said, flipping through a newspaper on their way to the gala. They'd crammed the team into multiple cars leaving at different times, just in case any of them were held up in traffic or were called out in an emergency. Laurel sat in the back seat of the third car to leave, with Nat and Thor. She had been stuffed in between them as they passed the paper around, reading snippets of the article out loud for the entire car. "I get it, but aren't your usual colors blue and silver?"

"It's the hair," Thor commented, both of them noting that even now, Laurel was wearing dark blue. "Just a warning, you will be in a thousand pictures tonight."

"Yeah, I know. I'm just glad Tony's not having a huge dinner too. I'd hate to have to pose for pictures while I eat," Laurel admitted, watching as they pulled up in front of the hall that Tony had rented. She would be glad to be out of the car soon, even if it meant smiling for dozens of cameras. Being crammed in between Thor and Nat wasn't very comfortable at all. She loved them, but she could hardly move in the back of the tiny car.

As soon as she stepped out of the car, people began taking pictures and calling out questions. Laurel had never been to an event like this, but she did amazingly well, smiling and waving as she walked into the reception hall, giving the reporters a few answers before moving on to let other people in. Tony greeted her at the door, giving her a hug and whispering, "You're doing great. There are a lot fewer cameras in here, but be careful what you say. These people talk, and they love getting their names in the news. Oh, and Reindeer Games has been looking for you since he got here."

"Who the hell is Reindeer -?" Laurel was cut off by Pepper appearing at Tony's elbow, smiling briefly at her before pulling him away to greet someone else. She would see small glimpses of Tony all night, playing the dutiful host with Pepper, but they hardly had a chance to talk.

"How's it going?" Steve came by just as Tony left her, handing her a glass of champagne and stopping to talk for a little while as more people arrived. "They're eating you up out there. You're all they're talking about. You and Peter, but I doubt his aunt is going to let him stay for long. The poor kid's face was plastered all over like Uncle Sam's back when he joined."

"Oh, I -"

Out of nowhere, an immaculately-groomed man materialized behind Steve, tapping him on the shoulder and beaming almost as brightly as the new watch he had matched to his suit and was obviously trying to show off. He clearly hadn't changed since the last time Laurel had seen him. "Captain, do you mind if I borrow my protege for a moment? I hate to steal her from you, but we haven't spoken in ages. I think you're being looked for, by the way. Stark mentioned something about trying to find you a moment ago. There's someone he wants to introduce you to, a veteran from your old platoon, I believe."

Steve turned to her, Laurel's jaw tightening as she nodded anyway. "I'll see you in a little while, Steve. Don't forget, you owe me that story about the 1942 World Series." She forced a smile, Steve bidding the two of them goodbye for the moment. As soon as he was out of earshot, however, her voice hardened as she greeted her new companion. "Stephen."

"Laurel. It's been a while." She hadn't seen Stephen Strange in months, and she hadn't missed him one bit. "It's good to see you again. I assume you've expanded your training since we last spoke."

Practically gulping down her glass of champagne, she nodded, reaching out for another as a waiter passed by with a tray of drinks. "That I have. I've branched out into Celtic magic, which is somewhat similar to our Mystic Arts. It has a lot more ties to nature, but it's been extremely helpful. Asgardian magic is more difficult, but I've started to dabble in it. What do you really want, Stephen?"

Completely ignoring her question, Strange took the opportunity to ask, "Asgardian magic? I thought Thor had relatively little magical training. Besides, it's extremely dangerous, even for Masters of the Mystic Arts. There's a reason we don't teach it in the Sanctum."

"I don't mind a bit of danger. And Thor isn't the one teaching me." She had almost finished her second glass, desperately trying to find a way out of the conversation. "I know you don't care how dangerous it is either. It's magic, more powerful than what we can do. I'm sure you've tried to learn some of it yourself. Now why did you make a point of tracking me down here? There are hundreds of people for you to try to impress."

"I merely wanted to wish the newest Avenger good luck in her current assignment," he replied as she reached for yet another glass of champagne. "And ask for a dance, if I may be so bold to -"

"Stephen, hey there! Good to see you! Glad you could make it. I know you've been busy." Tony buzzed by, stopping long enough to say hello and start to catch up with Strange.

Feeling someone's eyes on her, Laurel turned to look across the room as they talked. Loki stood in a corner, nursing his drink and scanning the crowd. He winked as she caught his eye, flashing her a smile. "Excuse me, gentlemen. It's nice to see you, but I'm afraid I'm needed elsewhere." She made her escape before either of them could say anything more, ducking through the crowd and dodging a couple of conversations on her way over. Loki waited patiently for her, watching as she made her way closer and tried to shake off those who stopped her as politely as she could. When she finally broke free of the crowd, she came to join him, reflexively hugging her friend. In return, he put an arm around her for a second.

As Laurel leaned against the wall and took another sip of her drink, Loki looked out over the rest of the room, where all of the others were busy milling about, drinking, dancing, and socializing. "You look wonderful."

"So do you. I don't think I've ever seen you this dressed up. Armor doesn't count. You look nice in a suit."

"Thank you," he sighed, finally turning to look at her. "Do you ever feel like you're the only person in a room full of people? Watching all of them be so... happy. So happy to be with each other."

"Yeah. Being alone in a crowded room is… I'm sorry. I'm sorry I dragged you out here. You shouldn't have to be stuck here with all of these people. It was selfish, telling myself that I needed you to be here. Steve would have done just fine as company, and besides, he loves parties." Sure enough, Steve was happyily chatting with a circle of people, making them all laugh. "You shouldn't have to be here. You clearly don't want to be."

"Give me your glass," he commanded, extending his hand. He had had an idea.

"Why?"

"Just hand it to me." She obeyed, Loki vanishing both of their glasses and offering her his hand. "Let's dance. If I have to be here, I would rather it be just with you. Besides, this way no one will try to talk to you."

They made it through two songs before people on the dance floor started to notice the two of them whirling around. Three songs in, people had begun to whisper. Neither of them had noticed, however, since they were busy talking, absorbed in their conversation and in each other. Even there, even in the middle of everyone, it was an incredibly easy conversation, Laurel noticed. They could talk for hours about anything and everything. And he never let go of her, even when the songs changed. Odd, at least for him. Four songs in, a rather bold couple next to them leaned in, one of them commenting, "Blink twice if you're a hostage, my dear" before laughing and spinning away. Laurel shrugged it off, but they had already opened the floodgates.

The next couple to take their place looked to Loki, one of them sneering, "I don't know how you managed to get here. You should be locked up for what you've done. Or worse."

He said nothing in response, feeling Laurel's grip on his hand tighten slightly. He shook his head slightly, hoping that she wouldn't say anything either. _It's not worth it._

"Prison is too good for him, darling."

"My granddaughter was one of those people. One of those vermin from this realm, as you called them," scowled another woman, coming to join in the fun. "Young lady, get away from him while you still can. This murderer -"

She was cut off by a man in an old suit, waving his arms at them as he moved closer. "You should have been killed along with them!"

"You're a monster," spat an old woman dripping with diamond jewelry. "An absolute monster! The Devil himself!"

People started forming a circle around them, attracting attention just by their presence. "You deserve to be killed, just like you killed our -"

"That's it." Laurel stopped in her tracks, not letting go of his hand as she addressed the growing number of people verbally attacking them from all sides. "None of you know him. None of you know that he's saved so many more people. None of you have seen how much he's changed since then. I know this will end up plastered on the front pages of those magazines you so desperately cling to in the salons and waiting rooms across this city, but none of you ever listened to him. None of you cared to. None of you stopped to consider for one second why he did what he did. You all see a monster, but you refuse to listen to the man behind it."

One of the hecklers called out to her, making his way closer and saying, "Stop defending him! He'll kill you too. He's too dangerous to be out here with the rest of us! Run while you can!"

Turning back to Loki, Laurel could see how tense he had grown, all of the enjoyment having left his eyes. It had been replaced by a steely look, one that she knew was a sort of mask. "Let's go," she whispered, pulling him from the middle of the dance floor and away from the people who were still hissing and hurling insults at him. The two of them made their way out to the grand front steps of the hall, sitting down together far from the door, in a slice of darkness where they could watch other people but not be easily spotted. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry about all of them." She wound her arms around him, adding, "You don't deserve any of those things they were saying."

"They're right, though. I am a monster. I'm a mass murderer. I deserve every bit of what they said, and more. I was born a monster, and I will always be a monster," he said into the cold night air, staring off into the distance. "You weren't there."

"I also wasn't there for all of those years on Asgard that made you so desperate for someone to care, so desperate for power that you would do almost anything for even a tiny sliver of it. I wasn't there for the invasion, and I wasn't there when they threw you in prison. But I'm here now."

He sighed, wordlessly handing her his jacket. "You'll get cold out here at this rate."

"Loki, that's not -"

"I'm a Frost Giant. I'll be fine. But if I can see your breath in the air, you're going to get cold. Right now you're only warm because you're angry."

"Loki, that's not what's important right now," she protested, taking his hand and refusing to let go. "They have no right to abuse you like that, and you shouldn't have to take it."

"I grew up being compared to Thor. Constantly. He was raised to rule Asgard, while I could never sit on the throne," he told her, speaking into the cold air and refusing to meet her eye again. "So I was always second-best, no matter what I did or how good I was at things. I was never Odin's son, not really. I am a Frost Giant they adopted to make peace between the kingdoms. I was a chess piece that is only meant for my father's gain, while my brother was meant to take over the throne. He was destined to. I tried to take what was my birthright, but there was so much more…"

"They don't understand," Laurel sighed, watching the pained expression on his face. She wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light, but she could have sworn that he looked like he was about to cry. "None of them do. Asgard doesn't see what they've done, always comparing you to Thor when you're clearly different people. It would have been one thing if they raised you equally, even if it was always Thor who was meant to be king, since he's the oldest. But to treat you like an outsider and then claim you were meant to be part of the family… it's just cruel. And here on Earth… as soon as I got to the facility, they warned me about you. They had me read your files and they kept telling me not to trust you. But you've never given me any reason to be afraid of you."

"I don't want you to be afraid of me." This was a vulnerable voice that she had never heard before. So she said nothing, waiting for him to fill in the silence. "I don't want you to be afraid of me. You're the only one who isn't. You're the only person I haven't ruined things with. At least not yet."

"You won't," she promised, leaning her head on his shoulder and looking out over the city with him. "You won't."

They ended up grabbing a ride home together, saying nothing in the car. When they reached the Avengers Facility, they walked inside in silence, Laurel not letting go of his hand the entire way there. Bruce had come home and fallen asleep on the sofa, so they crept past the living room, Laurel carrying her high heels in her free hand. Stopping in front of Loki's door, she finally let go of him, taking his jacket off and passing it back. He folded it over his arm, saying, "Thank you for that. For sitting out there with me when you could have been - should have been - having the time of your life. I… I needed it."

"It's not a problem. Remember, I'm just down the hall if you need anything."

"Thank you." He stepped forward, reaching out and giving her a hug. Although she was taken aback by the gesture, Laurel wrapped her arms around him, saying goodnight.

She was lying in bed, almost asleep, when her phone buzzed. Loki. Of course it was Loki. _Please don't tell anyone else about tonight._

 _Of course not. I would never._

 _Good. Thank you. Again._

 _Like I said, it's not a problem. Goodnight, Loki._

 _Goodnight._

Laurel paused, seeing that he was still typing. But the 'typing' bubbles went away, so she set her phone back down. Rolling over in bed, she absentmindedly conjured a handful of green and gold sparks before closing her eyes, wondering about the press fallout that would surely start to hit in the morning.


	7. A Lesson in Old Norse

Loki never mentioned that night or their conversation on the stairs. He was back to his usual snarky self in no time, leaving Laurel to wonder why else was buried beneath the exterior, behind the mask that he always wore. She never brought it up, figuring that if he wanted to talk about it, he would. Eventually.

For now, though, she had plenty of other mysteries to solve. Sitting onboard the Quinjet, Laurel and the others were learning everything they could about a rogue cult leader who had begun a standoff in the Midwest. He and his followers, at first, seemed like a normal cult, if there could be such a thing. Preaching tolerance but practicing violence, he had drawn the attention of the FBI and the DEA, who alerted S.H.I.E.L.D. when they realized the weapons he had been collecting were not made on Earth.

"Basic weapons raid," Steve outlined, bringing up the schematics of the compound with Tony's help. "We've got to isolate the leader, get that cache of weapons out of there, and make sure everyone comes out alive."

"We need those weapons to come back with us, no matter whose boots we have to step on," Tony added, looking to all of them. "I want to break some of them down and see what we're dealing with. This could be just one part of a galactic weapons trafficking ring. Let's rock and roll."

Laurel nodded, standing as they descended and assembled at the door of the jet. Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She had a brief second to check it as they landed, seeing that the text was from Loki, who was still at the Avengers Facility, still on house arrest. _Good luck. Be careful._

 _Thanks. Don't get into too much trouble without me._

 _I'll try my best._

Stowing her phone safely back in her pocket, Laurel glanced at Steve, who stood beside her as they opened the door. They were greeted by a swarm of DEA agents on the ground, but they had already gone over the plan a dozen times on the jet. As Tony went to monitor the situation from the air, Laurel and Steve split off from the rest of the group, heading for the side of the building, where they knew a door led directly to the cult leader's quarters. It was the weakest point in the facility, and they would be breaking in just as the others led an assault on the front doors.

"We're in position," Steve radioed, the others confirming their positions one by one. Bruce, who was stationed by the DEA command center, started a countdown as a SWAT team moved in to follow in their wake. A half-second before the countdown reached zero, Laurel unbolted the door, wrenching it off of its hinges with a wave of her hand. Steve ran ahead of her, barreling into the building as the rest of their team barged in through the front door. "Go left!" Steve called, Laurel turning just as an explosion rocked the ground.

Instinctively, she threw up a forcefield around the two of them, watching as dust fell from the ceiling. "That'll start a fire for sure. Widow's leading the SWAT guys to Weapons Storage, and the others are getting people out," Laurel reported, listening in on the comms line. Something moved in the darkness to her right. "Cap, I've got him!"

Before the man could react, she threw a box of glowing light around him. Although he protested, she passed by him, heading for the concealed door that he had very nearly been able to grab. Pulling the door open, she found a small room, glittering with weapons that she had never seen before. Some of them looked like conventional, earthly weapons that had been repaired with strange metals. Others were like nothing she had ever seen, ray guns and blasters that could only have been designed by alien species. "I'll radio Nat and Tony," Steve said, jogging up behind her after making sure the rest of the room was clear. "What's that noise?"

There was an almost imperceptible ticking coming from a small box on one of the shelves. It looked like any other cardboard box, but they were both hesitant to approach it. Casting a forcefield around it, Laurel cautiously stepped forward. "It looks like a grenade or something… he must have set it off before we got him. You wouldn't happen to know how to disable one of these, would you?"

Steve shook his head. "I have no clue… it's not any kind of grenade I've ever seen."

"Good luck with that one," their captive chuckled from his box. "You breathe too hard in there, and in a couple of seconds, we'll all be dust."

The two of them exchanged a glance, Laurel's eyes flooding with a revelation. "That's an L-9-37 grenade. They're manufactured on a planet light years away from here," she whispered, careful not to move. "Tony told me about them a while back, when we brought in a cache of weapons from a collector over in Asia. They're incredibly powerful, and you can't hold them well, even with my abilities."

"What do you suggest we do? If we wait for much longer, the team's going to come in here and set it off." Steve's eyes were locked onto the grenade. "If we try and run, we won't make it."

"I have something that might work. I can't hold it for long, but I can try." She took a deep breath, stretching out her hand as slowly as she could. A glowing blue sphere encased the box, Laurel feeling it draining her already. "Go. It's safe. Take him and run. Get everyone out of here."

"Laurel -"

"Go!" She gritted her teeth, watching as he dashed past her. The waiting was agonizing. She held out as long as she could before letting the grenade detonate, the force of the blast sending her flying across the room. The sphere had held, though. Leaning against the wall for support, she stood up. There was a weight in her stomach, a bottomless pit that made her more dizzy than she had ever felt before.

She sat down again, remembering Loki's warning about Asgardian magic. It had saved the entire compound, but it took a hell of a lot out of her. Even the small force fields that they had practiced generating on the roof would make her tired, but this was bigger than anything she had ever casted before. Steve came back a moment later, Laurel finally letting the shields drop. "Everyone got out," he told her, offering her his hand. :aurel stood up gingerly, wincing with every step she took. "Good job."

Back at the base camp, Laurel dropped into a chair, watching as the others went back and forth, bringing out weapons and talking with the DEA agents in charge. "We've got to figure out if this was an isolated thing or if he's been working with a smuggling ring," one of them said, talking to Steve and Tony. "We have no way of knowing for sure. He's not talking."

"I can get him to talk," Laurel coughed, the three of them coming over by her. "I can get him to talk. I just need a space to do it. I can make him talk to me." Clutching Steve's shoulder, she insisted that she would be fine. "Just give me a few minutes. And some water, if you have any."

On the rare occasion that she would overextend her magic, Loki would sit down with her, conjuring a glass of water and usually some form of sugary food. His favorite was anything covered in chocolate, so that's what they would usually end up with. They would sit together and eat, Loki marveling at the will of this curious Midgardian sorceress, at how she would gladly practice magic until she could do no more, and even then insist that she learn more the next day.

Steve and Tony shared a look, but they allowed her to follow one of the DEA agents to where they were holding the cult leader. Laurel took a deep breath, heading into the room to find him handcuffed to a chair. "Are you part of a smuggling ring, or are you operating on your own? Where did you get those weapons?" she pressed, extending her magic to reach into his mind, pulling for the truth.

This one was strong, though. He fought back, spitting, "What makes you think I'll tell you?"

"This." Without hesitation, she reached forward, channeling the Asgardian magic she had been taught. Immediately, it felt like she was being stabbed, this time the pain growing in her head. It seemed like whatever she channeled, there the pain would be. Blocking something that would have ripped them all to shreds felt like she had been punched in the gut. Pulling memories out of someone else's brain felt like her own brain was being unraveled. But she had to try, or they could be facing serious danger. "Now tell me, were you alone?"

"Yes," he whimpered, his face changing quickly as she bored into the recesses of his mind. "I found the first one, and then I traded for the rest. People sell them online. They have no idea what they are, but when I cracked one of those swords open and found out what was inside -" The words came tumbling out of his mouth now, as she compelled him to talk. "That's why they followed me, they gave me their life savings to buy them so we could lead a revolution when the time came, when the sun set on-"

Laurel crumpled to her knees, having learned what she needed to. She had to let go of her hold on his mind. It was just too painful. Steve came in, putting an arm around her and helping her get up. She closed her eyes, only opening them when they were back on the jet. "Steve…" she reached out for him, Steve leaving the discussion he was having with the others to join her where she was lying in the back of the plane.

"You're alive," he wondered aloud. "You passed out back there, and Nat got you stabilized enough to move. You're going to be out of commission for a while."

"Can you make Tony turn down the lights back here? I've got the worst migraine imaginable. I'll be fine. I just need to rest," she whispered, laying her arm across her eyes.

"Sure, not a problem."

They reached home as the sun was going down, Laurel immediately going to shower and lie down. Bruce stopped by to leave her dinner, but she was hardly able to eat. It hurt to move, it hurt to think, it hurt to just lie there in the dark. Her phone buzzed as the night got later, but it hurt too much to look at the light, even for a second or two. It was Loki, she was sure of it. She knew it was far later than when she would usually head to the library, but she could hardly type a letter or two before having to close her eyes, so she set her phone aside, thinking that she would explain it all to him in the morning. Or whenever her migraine subsided.

Half an hour later, there was a soft knock on her door. It sounded more like a battering ram to her, but it was, in all reality, so quiet that Steve, her closest neighbor, heard nothing from his rooms. "Come in, it's open," she croaked, rolling over in bed. The sliver of light in the hall was too painful to look at, even indirectly.

The door closed softly, Laurel rolling over again to watch the figure that had walked in. She could hardly see, but smiled a bit when he held up his hand, creating a glowing ball of green light. Somehow, it didn't hurt to look at. "You Midgardians can be so weak," Loki remarked as he came over to her. "I warned you about overextending yourself with Asgardian magic. Too much more and you would have died," he said in an annoyed, but still melodious, voice. He sat down next to her anyway, Laurel looking up at him as much as she could. It hurt to even move her eyes. "It really is pathetic."

He laid a cool hand on her forehead, mumbling a few words under his breath. She couldn't understand them, but almost immediately, the pain in her head began to subside, to dull down enough to where she could open her eyes and look up at him in the green light. "You know what's pathetic? The fact that you were so compelled to find me when I didn't turn up on time."

"You refused to answer your phone," Loki shrugged, running his hand through her hair. "I heard Stark talking to my brother about you when I went to get dinner. They sounded worried, so I volunteered to check up on you."

"You volunteered, or you crept over here when you were done listening in on them?" she mumbled.

"Hmm, a bit of both," he admitted. "That, and I got curious. You never showed up, and I know only something like this would have kept you from me."

"Kept me from you? How self-important -"

"Ssh," he chided, stroking her hair and saying, "I will admit, I was curious. And then I heard them talking and knew exactly what you had done. I can use my magic to help you somewhat, but the only thing that will really help is rest."

"You're helping already," she mumbled, leaning against him and watching the glowing lights he had thrown into the air. "Do me a favor and don't get up until I fall asleep."

"Should I bother being so kind?" he asked, Laurel already closing her eyes. "Mayhaps I will be." He added something else in what she could only assume was Old Norse, contemplating why and how he had ended up there.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing of importance," he lied, looking down at her. "Nothing at all."


	8. An Avengers Christmas

A.N.: I had so much fun writing and reading over this chapter! Also, thank you so much to everyone who has left reviews and set me messages, and thank you for over 1k views in a week. It means a lot that you take time out of your day to read and comment! Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy!

* * *

"Steve, what kind of sweater is that?" Laurel laughed, walking into the living room to find him in one of the strangest Christmas sweaters she had ever seen. It looked like he had amassed several patterns and put them together into one single sweater. "Please tell me you made that yourself. I know you know how to knit."

"It's vintage," he smiled, stringing lights around the tree that Thor and Bruce had hauled in that afternoon. "Come give me a hand over here. I'm almost done with the lights. We don't have that many ornaments, but they'll have to do for now."

"Anyone want a drink?" Tony called from the kitchen, where he had already begun mixing a Christmas cocktail for himself. All of them had been putting the facility together for the holidays, cleaning and decorating over the course of the day. "Widow? Bruce?"

"I'll take another beer," Thor called from where he was carrying in a box of ornaments, setting it down next to the tree. "I think I found the rest of the garland from last year. This should be the last of the boxes we had in storage."

"Do you know how to make raspberry cosmos?" Laurel asked, leaning on the kitchen door frame and watching Tony pour drinks. "One of those would be great."

"Do I know how to make raspberry cosmos? Please," Tony scoffed, pulling a glass out of the cabinet. "'Course I do. I pour pretty strong, just a warning."

Glancing back to where Loki stood scowling at the others, she smiled to herself, glad to see him out with the rest of them for once. Being cooped up in the library all the time wasn't the best thing for anyone, even if they were a god exiled to a world occupied by mere mortals. "Perfect. I'll take two. Someone's decided to come out of the library and socialize for once."

"Really? I'm gonna make Reindeer Games put on those antlers Thor's wearing," Tony resolved as he poured her drink. It would prove easier said than done, but for now, Laurel was happy to bring him a drink and see that the God of Mischief was using his magic for good, floating a star to the top of the Christmas tree as Steve plugged the lights in.

Passing him a glass, Laurel stood back, nodding her approval. "It looks good. You guys light the menorah yet? It's the third night," she reminded him, Loki snapping his fingers and making the Hanukkah lights come to life on the mantelpiece. Bruce jumped back from where he had been hanging stockings nearby, looking over his shoulder to see Loki waving impishly back at him.

"Thanks." He took a sip of his drink, surveying the room. "Merry Christmas. And happy Hanukkah."

"Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah to you too. Oh, and happy Yule, as they'd say on Asgard," she offered, moving to help Thor hang ornaments on the tree. His brother sat down, levitating a few ornaments to the top of the tree, where the others couldn't reach. "Thor, can I borrow your antlers?"

"My antlers? Sure. There are more around here somewhere… I think Pepper took the box with her when she and Tony put the lights up outside." He took his antlers off and passed them over, Loki's stomach dropping as he put together what Laurel was up to.

Sure enough, she made her way through the maze of decorating supplies and empty boxes to put them on his head, laughing and snapping a picture before he could manage to take them off. "I'm not wearing these. I look like a child in them. It's pathetic."

"Please? It's Christmas," she pled, frowning at him.

"No. They're childish. As is that dreaful sweater my brother's borrowed from Rogers," he spat, taking another sip of his drink. "There's no way -"

"Please? For me? I think you look nice in them. Besides, it's Christmas."

"Come on, brother, put them on," Thor chided on his way into the kitchen for another beer. He returned with a bowl of popcorn, setting it down on the table they had been using to hold all of their decorations. "It's a part of the spirit of the holiday. Besides, she did ask nicely."

Loki frowned, grudgingly putting the reindeer antlers back on his head and looking to Laurel. "Happy now?"

"Very much so," Laurel smiled, trying not to laugh. "Maybe you should wear those into battle instead of your normal helmet one day."

"Fairly certain that my skull would get crushed if I tried that, but I shall take it into consideration," he glowered, watching as she went back into the kitchen, returning a moment later with more drinks for the both of them. Sliding an empty box over, she dropped into the seat next to him as Loki scowled. "Don't expect me to indulge this nonsense regularly."

"I won't," she promised, Tony making his way over to see if they needed any help with the tree. "I just think you look sweet in them. Keep them on for now, and I won't make you wear them again. But for now, it's Christmas Eve."

Tony looked like he was about to comment, but reconsidered, simply saying, "Looking sharp, Reindeer Games. Laurel, Rogers, the kitchen's all yours. Bar's open til we go to bed, but I'm out of the way."

"Come on," Laurel beckoned, grabbing her glass and pulling Loki up and into the kitchen. Steve was already busy taking things out of cabinets, piling ingredients on the island. "Did you already start preheating the oven?"

"Could you? I forgot all about it. I'd say go 350 or 375, not much higher than that. Why do we have four things of salt?" He had stacked them on the counter, still pulling ingredients out of cabinets and rifling through the spices.

"No idea." Laurel went to preheat the oven, grabbing a mixing bowl from the dishwasher on her way back. Loki perched on the counter, watching the two of them get to work. He was quite a sight, sitting there with his arms crossed, a vaguely pissed-off look on his face, and a pair of reindeer antlers stuck on his head. "Loki, if you're just going to sit up there, you're in charge of keeping us well-supplied with alcohol."

"Not a problem, I assure you." He raised his glass to her, downing his drink before pouring another one. "What are you two making?"

"Christmas cookies, of course," Steve said, prepping a couple of baking sheets, covering them in aluminum foil. "It's not Christmas without cookies. I don't know if that's what they do on Asgard, but here, we always make cookies."

"You're so terribly wholesome, Rogers," Nat laughed, coming into the kitchen to grab a drink and steal a handful of chocolate chips as Steve poured them into the mixing bowl. "Christmas cookies and ugly sweaters… I swear, you're such a wholesome, Captain America kind of guy."

"I sure hope I am," he shrugged, hunting down the measuring cups that he had thrown into the sink prematurely. "You're welcome to join us."

"I've got a bet to win arm wrestling Tony, but I'll stop by in a little while," she promised, heading back towards where the others were putting the finishing touches on the tree, joking and talking with each other like a real family.

"This is so much different than last year's Christmas and Hanukkah," Laurel sighed as she measured out cups of milk and water, pouring them into the bowl as Steve stirred. "I'm glad I've got all of you here… the holidays were so dull in the Sanctum. Stephen and I put up this tiny tree, and we almost burnt the place down the sixth night of Hanukkah… we had our fun, but it's so much nicer spending the holidays with everyone."

As the oven beeped, Steve agreed, telling her that, "I was on a mission halfway across the world this time last year. It's good to be able to be home with everyone." He fished a rolling pin out of a drawer when he was done stirring, being careful to put some flour on the counter so the dough wouldn't stick as he rolled it out. "It must have been quiet there all of the time. At least there's always something going on here."

Laurel got started on some gingerbread as Steve went searching for the cookie cutters, agreeing wholeheartedly. "Even when we had everyone there, it was Stephen, Wong, and us three trainees. We would hunt each other down sometimes, but most of the time we were on our own, practicing spellwork or training. Loki, could you make me another drink?" Dutifully he filled her glass again, listening in on the conversation but saying nothing. "Thank you. You know, I like how we all have dinner together, at least when we can. I swear I hardly ever ate with the rest of them back at the Sanctum. Well, except Stephen, but that was that," she shrugged, taking a sip of her drink and measuring out some baking soda.

"That was that, huh?" Steve repeated, raising an eyebrow as he reached for another cookie sheet. He let the question hang there, waiting for Laurel to fill in the silence. Loki was listening in too, watching her carefully over the edge of his glass.

"That was that," she confirmed as she worked. "Stephen and I… well, we knew it wouldn't work, but we tried anyway. He's an arrogant, self-important ass. Well, he's actually a decent human being and an excellent Master of the Mystic Arts, but he annoyed the hell out of me." She set the mixing bowl down, forcing a clearly fake smile. "But it's Christmas. And Hanukkah. And Yule. I should be nice, shouldn't I?"

Loki coughed, Laurel turning to see that his scowl had deepened. He tilted his head a little, eyeing the mixing bowl. Grabbing a spoon from the closest drawer, she handed him a spoonful of dough with a much more genuine smile. "Thank you." Even his voice sounded strained, like he was holding back a terribly bitter comment, he remained civil.

The three of them - well, Laurel and Steve, anyway - spent the next hour baking cookies, Loki being sure to sample everything as soon as it was ready. After everything had been cleaned and put away, Laurel yawned, heading back to spend some time with the others. Loki disappeared along with a concerning amount of cookies, but she shrugged it off. He had clearly reached his limit regarding social interaction.

As everyone started breaking off to go to bed, Laurel checked her phone, seeing a message from a few minutes before. Loki. Of course it was from Loki. The others had all been gathered together.

 _Meet me in the library? I still have cookies._

 _Okay. Thanks for saving me some._

When Laurel walked into the library, she found Loki already sitting in his spot, a plate of cookies on the small table between their chairs. It was snowing above him, a controlled snow that blanketed the ground but didn't feel too cold at all. Frost Giant magic? Asgardian magic? She couldn't tell, but it was a nice touch. He had taken off the antlers, but they were balanced on the side of his chair. He hadn't completely discarded them. "Hey, you. I'm surprised you stayed out there as long as you did." She grabbed a cookie and sat down, adding, "Tony really did pour those kind of strong, didn't he?"

"He did, but you also had an unholy amount of them," he offered, holding his hand out and catching some of the snow before letting it fall to the floor, where it vanished. "You know, I never would have figured… you and Strange? Really? He's a second-rate Midgardian wizard at best."

Laurel held her hand out under the snow cloud, waiting to respond until she could pelt him with a tiny snowball. "What does that say about me, if the man who taught me a lot of what I know turns out to be a second-rate Midgardian wizard at best?"

"I'm teaching you now, and I am far better than Strange is. That says a lot about you."

"I'd much rather have you, at this point. Teaching me about the real power of the Mystic Arts and Asgardian magic, I mean. Stephen would never think of something as clever as this." She sighed, running a hand through her hair to get rid of the snow.

"My mother taught me this one," Loki admitted, thinking of the times when she would enthrall him and Thor with snow flurries and miniature storms, creating lightning bolts from the smallest thundercloud and tiny tidal waves out of thin air. "She also taught me this." He held up his hand, conjuring a ball of green and gold light. This time, though, he tossed it into the air, the ball exploding into the Northern Lights over their corner of the library.

The sky above them glittered in green, gold, and white, breaking through the clouds that he had created. It was a perfect likeness of the Northern Lights, dancing across the library ceiling in miniature. "They're beautiful," she beamed, fascinated by the intricacy of the magic. When she looked back to him, she could see the pain in his eyes, the pain he had been trying to mask all evening. "What is it?"

Silently, he got up, leading the way outside. The snow flurry followed him, and he made sure to grab the Northern Lights out of their slice of sky before heading up the stairs. Sitting down again on the ledge of the roof, he pushed the cloud of snow towards the city, which would have a white Christmas in the morning, mostly thanks to him. The lights, though, he tossed up above them again as Laurel took a seat beside him. "What is it?"

"That was the last thing she taught me," he admitted, not meeting her eye. "She loved that spell, but she never taught me how to do it when I was little. Thor and I loved it too, as children. I haven't seen it since… since well before she was murdered. I haven't even thought about the lights like that, not since then. I hardly wanted to. But I thought you would like them."

"I do, but you don't have to torture yourself on my behalf."

"It's alright. Enough of life is torturous that I can put up with some lights," he remarked, Laurel taking his hand. "You're freezing… right, it's below freezing out, isn't it?" He waved his hand, creating a bubble of warm air around them. In seconds, the air went from bitterly cold to room temperature, Laurel thankful that the Frost Giant had remembered she was a mere mortal and could freeze fairly easily. "My mother was the one person I didn't absolutely detest on Asgard. My father, my brother, it was always the two of them, from the beginning. He was the favorite, the real son of Odin, the one who was meant to rule Asgard. Then there was me. My mother was the only one who saw me as more than a way to broker a shaky peace with Jotunheim."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry you grew up like that, and that you had to lose her," Laurel sighed, seeing that his eyes were glittering in the light he had produced above them. "I know you must miss her terribly."

"I do." His voice was lighter than normal, something much softer. She could have sworn that it was about to break as he thought of his mother and all that he had lost.

He finally turned to look at her, his face full of pain and grief. Full of longing for the past. But something else glimmered behind his eyes, a kind of longing that she had noticed a couple of times before, though she had said nothing about it. Laurel took a breath, impulsively leaning in and closing the gap between them. His lips were as cold as his hands were, but he didn't tense up when she touched him. Almost immediately, she pulled back, realizing what she had done. "I… I'm so sorry. That was wrong of me. I'm sorry."

Her face turning red, she moved to get up, but Loki would not let go of her hand. "No, that was… that was good. That was good." He put a hand to her cheek, leaning forward to kiss her again.

When they broke apart, Laurel had to ask the question that had been simmering for a while now. "What does this mean? About us?"

"That we should do this more often?" he proposed, raising an eyebrow.

"I think it does," she nodded, following his gaze upwards. "Mistletoe? Really? Isn't that just an old Norse myth?"

"It just might be," he smirked, "but it also means that I get to do this again." He pulled her closer and kissed her one more time, making Laurel smile.

She leaned her head on his shoulder, Loki putting an arm around her as they settled in to watch the flickering of the Northern Lights. "Merry Christmas, Loki."

"Merry Christmas."


	9. A Time Bomb

On Christmas morning, everyone met up in the living room, opening presents and laughing with each other. Everyone but Loki, that was. While Bruce held up a new sweater from Steve, Laurel got up, wading through piles of wrapping paper and around the other Avengers. "I'll be right back. Gonna go start the coffee maker." She did stop in the kitchen, turning the coffee maker on before heading down the hall and knocking on Loki's door. There was a brief pause before he wrenched it open, still in his pajamas. His hair hung in his face as he scowled at her. "Good morning." She kissed his cheek, saying, "You should come join us."

"Why?" he grumbled, leaning on the doorframe. "You know I don't like… people."

"But it's Christmas."

"And?"

"We're opening presents." He shrugged, disinterested. Laurel sighed, adding, "There are presents for you too."

Exhaling loudly, he pushed his hair out of his eyes and finally relented. "I'll be there in a moment. Is there coffee?"

"There is. Black, lots of sugar?"

"Yes, thank you." He went back into his room, Laurel making her way back to where the others were opening presents. Nat reached over and stuck a bow on Thor's forehead, Tony wadding up wrapping paper and pelting Pepper with it. She passed by, going to pour two cups of coffee before joining them again.

Thor looked over her shoulder as she sat down, his face breaking into a smile. "Brother, you've decided to join us!" Sure enough, Loki was hovering at the edge of the room. He had brushed his hair, but he hadn't bothered changing, much like the others.

Settling in on the floor beside her and taking his coffee mug, Loki leaned back against the sofa. "Happy?" he asked, looking to Laurel.

"Yes. Now start opening your presents. You're a bit behind everyone else." She waved her hand, a pile of presents wrapped in green and gold moving from below the tree, coming to rest beside him.

When everything had been opened and cleaned up, Steve went to start making breakfast. As he began stirring pancake batter together, Nat took out a carton of eggs. "Who wants omelettes?"

"I'll take one with everything you can throw into it," Tony called, pulling some peppers out of the fridge. "Anyone know where the cutting board went?"

"It's over here," Pepper said, passing it behind Steve as she emptied the dishwasher. Bruce had put on another pot of coffee as Thor went to start a fire in the fireplace, thinking they could get rid of a lot of wrapping paper that way. Besides, it would make the facility feel more Christmassy.

Loki and Laurel leaned on the bartop that separated the kitchen from the dining room, watching everyone cook and make coffee. "So, about last night…" Tony shot her a look, Laurel scowling at him and saying, "We were just talking, relax. Not your conversation, by the way." She lowered her voice, turning back to Loki. "About last night, was it -"

"Yes. And I don't think we should talk about it here." He kept his voice low, glancing into the kitchen. "Not now."

"Then when? I have questions."

"Library, later. In the middle of the afternoon, while half of them are making Christmas dinner and the other half are napping or watching whatever sport is on." He took a sip of his coffee, turning to stare into the kitchen. End of discussion.

"Look at you two," Pepper beamed, coming to join them. "You're so sweet together."

"Thanks," Laurel smiled, looking to Loki. _I swear I haven't said a word to anyone, she came up with this all on her own._

Loki said nothing, instead scowling into his coffee cup. He was nearly silent during breakfast too, taking a place at the corner of the table, next to Laurel. She made up for it, talking and joking with the others as they ate and told stories. They all helped put the plates and silverware into the dishwasher, Steve setting it to run while everyone went their separate ways. Loki left as soon as he could, Laurel sticking around to help put things away and clean up from breakfast, which had long since turned into brunch, and then lunch, as time went by and Steve was yet to master fully cooking pancakes. He'd finally gotten it right on the third batch, but by then, everyone was starving, so he had to make more.

On her way to the library, Thor stopped her, Laurel smiling at the fact that he had never taken the bow off that one of them had stuck to him in the morning. "Thank you for being so good to my brother. He needs someone like you."

"It's really not a problem. He's a good person, even if he's not like the rest of us."

"I see the way he looks at you," Thor admitted, lowering his voice so the others couldn't hear. "I haven't seen him that happy in many years. May I ask, are the two of you rather fond of each other?"

"Is that your Asgardian way of asking if we're together?"

Thor nodded. "If I may ask. I would never get an answer from my brother."

"We… we might be. We are, but we aren't quite - you know what I mean. I'm actually going to find him to sort it all out now," she admitted.

"You are so good to him. And so good for him. I wish you all the best, even if my brother can be a bit difficult to deal with at his best."

In the library, Laurel found Loki in his spot, still in his pajamas. Without a word, he led her to the roof, creating a bubble of warm air around them as they watched the snow fall. Their rooftop had long since expanded from being just a place to practice magic. Now they had all sorts of conversations out there, especially the difficult ones. Sometimes they would sit up there and eat together, or just watch people come and go around the facility. "Can we talk about last night now?" Laurel asked as they sat down.

"If you want to."

"What does it mean? For us? We really didn't clarify anything. I - if we're being completely honest here, I think you're sweet, I think you're a genuinely good person deep down, and you're undeniably pretty attractive," she told him bluntly, the words spilling out all at once. "And if you want to make a go of this, I'll wholeheartedly agree. Everyone tells me I should be terrified of you, that I should be careful, that I shouldn't trust you with anything, but when I'm with you, I don't feel any of that. I just feel safe. Like that's where I should be."

He reached out for her hand, nodding. "You are too good of a person to be with someone like me. I was astonished that you even wanted to be friends. As for this feeling like it's where you should be, I am honored. I really am. But I can't even trust myself sometimes, so I don't see how you can."

"I can have faith that you'll do the right thing. And when you mess up, I'll be here," she promised, winding her fingers around his.

"We'll figure it out, I'm sure."

"Together?"

"Together."

That was all she needed to know. Laurel laid her head on his shoulder, Loki kissing the top of her head. "Merry Christmas, Loki."

"Merry Christmas."

It was a nice resolution, but over the next few days, everything seemed to fall apart. The rest of the facility all seemed to be in on it, making offhand comments about how nice they looked together, about how Laurel was such a good influence on him, all sorts of things that made Loki scowl endlessly. He would sit near her at dinner, but would move across the room if anyone made a comment that struck him the wrong way. If anyone said anything about the two of them, he would frown and shift himself away from her, even slightly. He spent longer and longer out of the library, making excuses to be in the living room with the team or locked away in his own room in the evenings. Laurel tried to bring it up with him, Loki shrugging it off or avoiding the matter all together. He would still kiss her goodnight, but otherwise he seemed incredibly distant.

Laurel even brought it up with Thor, who told her that his brother could be like that sometimes, but that there might be something deeper there. "He does like being with you," Thor promised, "but he destroys so much. I think he worries that he will find a way to mess this up too. You know he cares for you. You've seen it. He just does not want to see the possibility of having something that he could destroy, something that he does not want to destroy, but has the potential to."

"He can't hold me at arm's length and not mess this up," she stressed, Thor promising that he would do what he could to convince Loki to talk to her.

That night, Laurel found Loki on the library roof. He stood with his back to the door, animatedly talking to a hologram version of her. The hologram stood there, listening politely. Clearly, he didn't hear her come up and walk out onto the roof. "I don't know how to tell you… no, that's not right. I don't want to hurt you, but -"

"Loki?" Spinning around at the sound of her voice, he made the hologram vanish instantly. "Loki, you can't act completely differently in front of all of them." She had decided to be blunt about it, getting straight to the point. "You can let your guard down around me, but you can't keep pretending there's nothing more to it than that. Even if the others don't know, they suspect it. There's no reason to be hiding it from them, and there's no reason to be mad at me. Or whatever you are."

"I'm not mad at you. I could never be mad at you." He smiled like a shark, Laurel crossing her arms defensively as he approached.

She stood her ground. "Then what are you doing? Please tell me this isn't a trick. Because if it is, it's a horribly cruel one."

"It's not." He kept his voice flat, knowing that almost anything he said might make her mad. He had to be careful.

"Then why are you acting like it is?" It was true - he had been avoiding her ever since Christmas Eve had happened. They both knew that it had changed a lot, and that they couldn't just go on like it hadn't happened. But Loki had held back, not wanting to even entertain the possibility that he could have something good in his life. Of course, he refused to admit it to himself, let alone out loud to her.

He did try to explain, but for someone with such a silver tongue most of the time, he was almost at a loss for words. "I'm don't think… I'm not -"

"You're not what? Not serious? Loki, if you've invested this much time into… into reeling me in just to… this can't be some sort of big, elaborate joke."

"It's not a joke."

"Then why are you treating it like it is? There's all of this build up, the tension I'd noticed since Halloween - I thought I was crazy, but I haven't lost it. I'm still good at reading people. I caught glimpses of it, but I never wanted to say anything because I didn't want to ruin what we had going, just in case I was wrong. And now that I know… now that I thought I knew… Loki, just tell me what you're doing, tell me what you're thinking, because I'm not getting this," she pled, Loki keeping his mouth shut. "I don't get why you're shrinking away from me when you just started to open yourself up."

He frowned, saying, "You shouldn't… I'm too dangerous for you. I'm going to end up unraveling everything you've worked to achieve, everything you care about. That's what I do. I'm a time bomb waiting to go off and you shouldn't be around when it happens. I don't want you to be."

"I've spent so long trying to tell you that I don't care if it hurts me, I'm here to help you no matter -"

"Well I do. I care what it does to you," he spat back, thinking of the many things that he had ruined in the past, how many people he had wronged, how he would inevitably end up doing it again. "You should go. Run while you can. Get out."

"Fine." Laurel took a deep breath, turning on her heel and leaving him alone on the roof. She jogged down the stairs, not stopping until she had collapsed into a heap on her bed. Wishing that she could fall asleep instantly, Laurel rolled onto her back, knowing that she had a long night of restless thoughts ahead of her. "You idiot," she whispered, half to herself and half to the man she had left on the roof.

There was a knock on the door, Laurel eagerly jumping up, thinking that Loki had followed her. Wrenching the door open, she found Steve standing there. "Hey," he smiled sadly, reaching out to give her a hug. "I heard you running by and figured something was up."

Loki, meanwhile, sat on the roof, alone. Alone was what he had. Alone was okay. Alone wasn't ideal, but it was okay. At least, it had been. He knew that he had said the wrong thing - he surely didn't mean for it to sound so cruel. But it was true. There was so much that he had ruined in the past, and he knew that, in time, he would ruin this too. Conjuring up a ghostly image of her to talk to, he just prayed that he hadn't ruined it already.


	10. You're Not a Monster

The two of them hardly talked at all for the next week or so, and everyone noticed. No one said anything about it, Nat going as far as cutting Steve off when he tried to ask why Laurel was spending more and more time out in the living room with them in the evenings and less time in the library. After that, no one dared to say a word. When Laurel did venture down to the library, she simply came in, returned her old books, and picked up some new ones before heading back to sit with the others or read in her room.

Loki, on the other hand, spent almost all of his time holed up in the library. When Laurel would come in, he would glance up, as if he was about to say something, but always decided against it. Instead, he would try to read, not being able to get any of the words to stick until she had left the room. He only left the library for meals or when he went to sleep. Entering and leaving the kitchen in silence, he would only exchange a few words with people when they were in his way.

Thor, of course, tried to talk to him, but he refused to listen, instead ducking away from his brother, no matter how much Thor insisted on following him around. Thor would follow in his wake, telling him about how Laurel looked exhausted, about how she had grown quieter, about how he had found her conjuring a vision of him one day, talking to it like it was really him. This had been in one of the training rooms. She'd been practicing archery, and Thor had come to find her, since dinner was ready and she was the only other one there. He was just about to knock when he heard her talking to the holographic version of his brother. Deciding against disturbing her, he let her continue her practice in peace. But he had to tell Loki about it.

They all celebrated New Year's Eve together, sitting up and toasting the new year as they watched the festivities on TV. They had gone into the city to stand in Times Square once or twice, but lately, it had been a lot more of a hassle than they wanted to deal with. So they sat up in their pajamas, drinking champagne and talking about all of the New Year's resolutions that they had made in the past and trying to count how many that they had actually stuck with. When the new year had been rung in, they slowly made their way to bed, one by one, until only Laurel was left.

Standing at the giant bay window, she looked over the Avengers Facility, watching the fireworks coming from the rest of New York. She held her palm up, creating a few sparks of her own. Green and gold. Of course. Her colors may have been blue and silver, but a lot of the magic that she had picked up from Loki was green and gold. With a sigh, she checked on the fireplace, making sure that the fire they had started early on in the night was about to burn down before she set off for her room.

Tossing and turning, she finally went to sleep around two in the morning, only to be awoken by a knock on her door. "It's 3 AM," she called sleepily, rubbing her eyes as she sat up. "Steve, if you have some sort of 1940s New Year's tradition of waking us all up again for something -"

"It's not Captain Rogers," replied the voice outside of her door. It was a voice she hadn't heard in over a week, but one that still made her smile a bit. Even when she was mad, even at 3 AM. "If you would rather it be him, I'm sure I could go wake him up for you."

Pulling her hair out of her face, Laurel grabbed her glasses and made her way through her quarters to the door. Tony had practically built them all their own apartments, complete with a bedroom, a full bathroom, a small kitchen and a dining area (that Laurel had half-filled with bookshelves), and a tiny front hall, perfect for storing battle gear, but not much else. It was nice, not having to leave unless she wanted to, but it also took a little while longer to get to the door.

Cracking the door open just a bit, she found Loki standing there in his pajamas, his hair falling into his eyes like he too had just gotten out of bed. There were dark circles under his eyes that he hadn't bothered to try to conceal, and he had wrapped a blanket around his shoulders like a cape. In the half-light of the hallway, he looked like some sort of strange vision, like he had walked out of a dream and couldn't decide where he was headed next. "What do you want, Loki?"

"I haven't been able to sleep for days now, and while that may not be that detrimental for a god, I've been plagued by constant thoughts of…" He stopped, sighing, "I need to talk to you."

She could tell that something was eating away at him, so she stepped aside, letting him in. "Do you want something to drink? Coffee? Tea? Water? I think I've got milk somewhere if you want it."

"Tea's fine. I know you're going to end up making some for yourself anyway." He sat down at the small kitchen table that she had in her dining room, waiting for her to return. It was more of a card table hidden underneath an old tablecloth, but it did its job. Laurel went to make tea, coming back and passing him a mug. "It pains me to have to say it, but I'm sorry. I haven't treated you fairly."

"Thank you," Laurel nodded diplomatically, taking a sip of her tea and waiting for him to keep talking.

And talk he did. "I feel awful, hearing about how this is affecting you," he offered. "My brother keeps telling me how distraught you are. I did not mean to tell you to leave, that night on the roof. I want the exact opposite, but I know it isn't good for you. I… I don't understand - I can't understand - how someone like you would want to be with a monster like me."

"Loki, you're the furthest thing from a monster -"

"Back on Asgard, parents told their children stories about the Frost Giants, about how dangerous they are, how they cannot be trusted with anything. About how noble Asgardian warriors protected their families from the Giants at all costs, how the Asgardian warriors were heroes for doing it. All while I was in the palace, while I was a Prince of Asgard. I come from monsters, and I've long since become one," he told her.

Laurel reached across the table, taking his hand. "You're not a monster. You may have come from monsters, but you're nothing like them. You've done some truly awful things, but you're a good person. A lot of what you've done… a lot of it makes sense, if you think about it. You may have gone about it the wrong way, but everyone can understand why the scorned brother of a golden boy would want to take over the throne. I know most people won't listen to that, but I can understand it, and I can see past it. I've learned more about you than plenty of people have, and I can see how good you are."

"You do realize that not even the other Avengers trust me? They talk about the two of us, you know. They don't like the fact that you spend your evenings in the library with me. They worry about you, I'm sure of it. Laurel, I can hardly trust myself at times. There are times when I don't know if I'm going to snap at someone or not, or… I break everything I touch. Not like the Hulk does, but in more subtle ways." He looked down to where she was still holding his hand. "It's not that I would snap and break your fingers, or make daggers fly. I couldn't do that to you. But I know I could still end up hurting you. That I will probably still end up hurting you."

"The other Avengers all have their own issues too. Besides, the benefits outweigh the damage."

"Wherever I go, there is war, and ruin, and death. If I am seen by your side, that's what people will think of. Even if I do not end up hurting you, I will hurt you just by appearing at your side. The public has already started in on that. I'm sure Stark showed you the newspapers after his gala."

He was right. Their pictures had been splashed on the front pages of newspapers and magazines, the press going wild about the fact that the newest Avenger had been spotted dancing and laughing with the man who had once tried to rule over Earth. The same man who had massacred so many people, who was only still alive because he was more useful that way. They had been speculating about the two of them for ages now, resulting in some vicious headlines. The comments on the Internet were even worse, attacking both of them and calling them every name in the book (and a whole lot of names Laurel had never seen or heard before).

Leaning on the table to emphasize his point, Loki continued, "The world loves people like my brother, people like the mighty Thor. The good people, the ones with real hearts of gold. The ones who are always undoubtedly good, no questions asked. I'm nothing close to what the people of Midgard like. I could never be my brother."

"I don't want you to be your brother. I want you to be Loki. I think you're missing something fundamental here," she pressed, squeezing his hand. "I care about you. I care about you so much, and I want to be a part of your life. I want you to be a part of mine. I don't care what everyone else says. You make me happy, even if you're as dangerous and twisted as you keep saying you are. If I wanted to be with someone as uncomplicated as Thor… there's so much more to you than the rest of them believe. I just want them to see that there's more, that you're not just the bad guy. And if they can't see it, if they refuse to see it, I want to be here anyway. I want to be here. I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of what you've done, or what you could do. I don't want to be afraid, and you've never given me any reason to be. And I'm not afraid of this." She let go of his hand, getting up to hug him. Loki sighed, putting his arms around her. "I don't care if it's difficult."

They stayed that way for a little while, Loki finally winding a hand through her hair and giving her a kiss. "I don't want to hurt you." His voice was soft, almost desperate. "I really don't."

"You won't. You won't." She held onto him for a moment before standing up again, saying, "I have an idea." Leaving him there, she went into her room, returning with an armful of pillows and blankets. "Let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see. We're heading for the easiest way to confirm everyone's suspicions," she said, leading him out of her quarters and towards the living room. She threw her pile of pillows onto one of the couches before she waved her hand, making it just big enough to fit the both of them. "Come here."

He frowned a bit, knowing that they would wake up to the stares and comments of the others, to which he would have to come up with snarky replies before being forced to talk to them during breakfast. But he gave in, laying down and wrapping his arms around her. "I'm sure just telling them would have sufficed."

"Oh, they already know," she said, looking up at him. "I just wanted to lay out here and watch the snow and the fireworks with you."

He smiled, tossing a few green and gold lights into the air as they settled in. "If you insist."


	11. Breakfast and Bullet Wounds

They woke up to some of the Avengers whispering, trying to keep their voices and their steps hushed as they came into the living room. "Should we tell Thor?"

"Let me get a good picture first. This is going in the group chat for sure." That was Tony, Laurel could tell.

"Leave them alone," Steve chided, heading into the kitchen. "Who else wants coffee?"

"I'm fairly certain they know now," Loki whispered, Laurel looking up at him. "If my brother hadn't said anything to them before, which I very highly doubt."

Laurel sat up, seeing that Tony was busy typing away on his phone. Bruce had just wandered in, but Natasha and Pepper were standing over them. "Good morning, you two," Nat smiled, looking them up and down. "Sleep well?"

"Fairly," Loki said nonchalantly, getting up and stretching. "Although someone talks in her sleep."

"Congratulations, brother!" Thor came into the room, holding up his phone with the picture that Tony had sent around."I knew you would work things out!"

"Yes, yes, very well and good," Loki grumbled, heading into the kitchen for some coffee.

The others turned to Laurel, who smiled, shrugging, "He's not a morning person." She loved seeing the looks on their faces, wondering how long this had been going on.

"So, am I going to have to keep you two a foot apart at all times?" Tony asked as the group began to move towards breakfast.

"I'll make sure we keep it a Tony and Pepper kind of thing," Laurel replied with a laugh. "Strictly above-board. I'll make sure he behaves like an Asgardian prince should."

"Oh, I can take care of that," Nat told her, pulling a carton of eggs out of the fridge. There was a brief second of silence as they all wondered whether or not she was joking. "Geez, I won't kill him, but he'll have to watch himself."

Loki nodded, leaning against the kitchen wall and drinking his coffee. "That I will. I'm sure she will, ah, keep me in line."

"She's good for you, brother. Our parents would have liked her," Thor said enthusiastically, plugging in the toaster before rifling through the pantry to find bread. "I've seen you two on the roof, practicing your magic. You can see the library roof from the gym, and I can see the green and gold sparks if I'm in there at night. I haven't seen you wield magic like that without anger in a very long time. Besides, I've seen how she makes you smile."

Pouring himself a glass of orange juice, Bruce agreed. "So that's what those lights were… I thought it was something you were working on late at night, Tony. i just wasn't going to ask, since that many sparks in your lab doesn't mean anything good. But you two are good together."

"Well I'm glad they all approve." Loki rolled his eyes, Laurel coming to stand beside him. His voice dripping with sarcasm, he added, "That was something we desperately needed."

"Peter says you two look adorable," Pepper reported, putting her phone back on the charger. "He also wants to know when he can come back and train. His winter break doesn't end for another week. I think he misses you guys."

"Tell him - shit." Tony was staring at his phone again, jogging out of the kitchen to take a call. When he returned a moment later, he looked around at all of them, the team waiting for some sort of news. "Finish whatever you're cooking. We can eat on the jet. Everybody suit up." Impulsively, he looked to Loki, adding, "Everybody."

They didn't need to be told twice. Pepper took over cooking for Nat, everyone else rushing to their rooms to change. They passed through the kitchen on their way to the jet, grabbing plates of food and thanking her for cooking. Running up to the jet as she ate a piece of toast, Laurel raced up the stairs, dropping into a seat next to Loki. Tony was busy pulling up a map.

As they took off, Tony started explaining the challenge that lay ahead of them. An entire city had fallen into the hands of a weapons smuggling cartel, whose leader had just given the order to begin arming the city in an attempt to make a move on the capital. "We're going to split into groups. We need people inside to get the civilians out, people to get the militants taken care of, and someone to grab their leader. He crash-landed from a planet called Zen-Whoberi, and he's made a name for himself bringing in cosmic weapons. Nothing too big to handle, but we've got a lot of territory to cover. He should be pretty easy to spot, since he'll be the only other green guy there. Sorry. Bruce."

"No problem," Bruce nodded, still eating a plate full of eggs.

Steve stood, starting to direct people as Tony pulled up a map of the city. "Thor, you, Bruce, and I are going to storm the gates here. We'll hit them by surprise as we send Nat around back, towards where the big shots are. Tony, we're going to need eyes in the sky and air support. Sam's already on his way out. He'll team up with you and keep them looking up while we attack on the ground. Laurel, you and Loki are going to need to back us up. I'll take the first wave and you two come in behind us. Everyone got it?"

They nodded, moving into groups to discuss the specifics. Laurel swiveled in her chair, turning to Loki as the rest of them broke off. She gave his hand an encouraging squeeze. She had been in battles like this plenty of times, but he had hardly left the facility in months. "You ready?"

"Very. I'm also ready to see you in battle. I've heard you're almost as good as the Asgardian Valkyries."

"We'll see about that." She waved off the compliment, instead focusing on what lay ahead of them. She knew how to focus on the mission, pushing everything else aside. It had helped a lot back when she was training, and even before then. It had been a long road to get there, and she wasn't going to let anything distract her from what they were up against. "I'm thinking we multiply our hologram selves and go for incapacitation, since they'll be busy getting civilians out. We can't watch out for all of the civilians… with Tony and Sam raining down hell from the sky, we should be able to manage."

Loki agreed, telling her that, "We fight up close if we can. Keep the civilian casualties to a minimum."

"Look at you, all excited to save people. It's pretty hot."

"I'm excited for battle. I haven't been in a good fight in a while," he corrected as they felt the jet start to descend. The first of them lined up at the door, Loki and Laurel following in their wake as they ran from the jet the second it landed.

They began their all-out assault on the town that had been turned into a compound, splitting off as local law enforcement rushed in to help evacuate the civilians that had been held captive for so long. Steve, Thor, and Bruce dashed out, heading for the gate of the small town being held hostage. Tony was already in the air, Sam meeting up with him above their heads. As they stormed the gate, Nat radioed in, saying that she was headed for the back gates. Laurel and Loki sprinted after the others, starting to take out the snipers that were carefully balanced on the walls of the town.

The two of them had a sort of silent "watch my back" understanding as they fought, Tony and Sam watching them from above. Laurel did her best to maintain a forcefield around them, but it was difficult to do as the police were rushing people in and out. Loki was brandishing his daggers, taking people out if they even seemed to threaten their team. Shoulder-rolling behind a parked car, Laurel threw a burning ball of light towards where a group was firing at them. It melted through their barricade, Laurel paying no attention to the mercenaries screaming behind it.

Now free to keep moving forward, Steve, Thor, and Bruce led the charge, Laurel and Loki following behind them. Loki took out a man headed for his brother, earning a nod of approval from Steve. There was a commotion coming from one of the buildings down the road, people fleeing from it in terror. The Black Widow had clearly reached her target.

As Tony and Sam swooped down closer to the center of the action, all hell broke loose. A van exploded next to them, Laurel throwing her hands up and casting as much of a forcefield as she could manage. On the other side, more fighters began streaming in, Loki generating a series of holograms to distract them. People were running everywhere, the town in chaos as civilians tried to escape, mercenaries flooding in from all sides, attempting to keep them there and fight off the invading Avengers. They knew they were fighting a losing battle - the combined force of the Avengers and the police was too much for them, so they were out for blood, to cause as much damage as possible before they were taken in.

Laurel turned just in time to see an angry woman dressed in battle fatigues running for Loki, who had his back turned, busily shielding an elderly couple from the machine gun fire coming from a rooftop nearby. In that instant, she could see two paths before her - if she was too slow, he would end up on the ground in a pool of blood. If she was fast enough, he would make it out alive. So she jumped. "No!"

She lept out, intercepting the woman, slamming her to the ground as she felt an incredibly terrible pain in her side. As they grappled on the ground, Laurel managed to get the upper hand, wrapping a field of energy around the woman. She stood, raising her hand and lifting the woman up with it. Dragging the shimmering bubble she had created across the sky, Laurel let it fly over the town wall, feeling all of her energy leave her as soon as she dropped it. It was Asgardian magic, something Loki had taught her to use to contain threats. But it was incredibly draining, especially for Midgardians.

Finally looking down to see what was causing the intense pain in her side, Laurel noticed that her battle gear was covered in blood. She put her hand to the wound in disbelief. _Shit. Shit. Shit. I actually got shot... it really feels like I imagined… shit, stitch it up. Mystic Arts. You've gotta know something - Loki. Loki can help. No. You've got to get out of here first. Hold it together for now. Fix i later. It can't be that bad. But oh, lord, it hurts. Loki. Shit he's got a gun trained on him again._ She threw another fireball at a sniper on the roof of a grocery store who had taken aim at him. Not bothering to see what happened after the fireball exploded on the roof, she ducked into an alley for a quick second.

She conjured a swirling rope of pure energy, waving her hand over the wound to patch it up for the time being. Blue threads of light knotted themselves around the gaping hole in her side, pulling the wound together in an attempt to close it. Another explosion rocked the street outside, Laurel gritting her teeth and rushing out of the alleyway, right back into the fray. Every step felt like hell, but she had to do it.

It seemed like hours, but only a few minutes later, they were assembling back on the jet, covered in blood, sweat, and dirt from the battle. Nat had hauled in their leader, passing him off to the police and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents before joining the rest of them in the center of town, picking off the mercenaries one by one. They had pulled them in, herding them from all sides until they had captured the last holdouts in the town square and turned them over to the police.

Laurel reclined in her chair, Loki coming to rest next to her. He looked like he had gotten quite the workout in battle, coming back covered in dried blood. Strands of hair stuck to his face as he tucked his helmet underneath his seat. Everyone was exhausted, gulping down water and enjoying the air conditioning of the jet. They sat in silence for a while, recovering from the battle and looking forward to showers, clean clothes, and food when they got home.

There was still a throbbing pain in her side, Laurel stretching out as much as she could to keep the binding on her wound fairly flat. If she had done it right, the combination of Asgardian magic and the spell that Stephen had taught her would keep it closed. But it wouldn't stop the pain. That was too big of a risk. If she couldn't feel it, she wouldn't know if it as getting better or getting infected. She reached out, lacking her fingers in with Loki's. He gave her a tired half smile, squeezing her hand back as she felt another intense wave of pain wash through her abdomen. She held onto his hand tightly until they landed, everyone going their separate ways.

Walking with Loki and Steve, Laurel made her way back towards her room, but stopped abruptly in the hall when Steve looked at her and exclaimed, "You're bleeding!" Sure enough, drops of blood made a clear trail from where they had turned into the hall, all the way up to where Laurel was standing. Thinking that she could finish stitching herself up when she got back to her room, she simply looked down, noting that the magic bandages weren't holding properly. Curiously, there was almost no pain. _You're going into shock._

That was when Loki noticed the vaguely shimmering patch on her suit, which was slowly turning darker and darker. "What happened to you?" he asked, his voice full of concern.

"I saved you." Her grip on his hand tightened as she started to feel lightheaded, the Asgardian magic taking its toll on her. "You were about to get shot, and I couldn't... You never would have seen her. I thought… I thought I could heal it myself. Stephen taught me how but it's not - oh god, I think it moved... something's got to be perforated." Crumpling to her knees, Laurel started to see black spots in the corners of her eyes.

Loki sank down with her, putting his arm around her shoulders and gently moving her to lean against the wall. He ran his hand through her hair as another wave of pain hit, Laurel starting to cry. She could see how much this was hurting him, all of his snide comments and scowls thrown out the window, replaced by nothing but concern and worry. Steve was calling over their comms channel for Pepper and Nat to get down there as fast as they could. She saw him bend down to check on her, Loki's voice nearly breaking as he said something unintelligible to Steve. Glancing over at him, she noticed that the green in his eyes stood out even more now. "Laurel? Laurel, please -" Holding her head up took so much energy. Leaning on Loki's shoulder, she looked down, seeing a whole lot of bright red on the floor. _Paint? No, blood. So much blood. It's yours. Shit. It's yours. You can't die like this. You have to tell him..._ She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly everything went black.


	12. I Already Know

" _We'll handle this part. We've got to get all of this off of her before it starts drying even more. Reverse the magic patch job as fast as you can, then go wait with Steve." That was Nat's voice. Was Nat standing above her? Who just closed a door? Where the hell was she?_

" _You'd better get Thor. He'll be able to handle him better." Pepper? "Actually, I'll call him, if you want to start getting all of this blood taken care of." Definitely Pepper._

" _Thor's already on his way down. Everyone is. Tony and Bruce have some sort of x-ray machine they're bringing, but I think we're going to have to dig the bullet out. This looks pretty nasty,"_ Nat's voice was saying _. "You know, I've been shot before, but never like this. I can't believe she managed to hold on this long."_

" _We'll probably need Loki back here to get that bullet out. Unless you want to call Stephen Strange, but he's not a surgeon any more, is he? We could get him down here just for the magic part of it."_

 _Do not get Stephen Strange. Whatever you do, do not get Stephen Strange. I don't want him working on me. I've spent enough time with him, and with my luck, he'd sew something wrong on purpose. Let Loki help. Hell, I'd rather have a Hulked-out Banner doing surgery than Stephen. Tony knows not to let you call him. But Tony also knows who you are. Who you really are. So does Stephen. They wouldn't want to punish you that badly, would they?_ _Do not get Stephen Strange._

 _"Loki's insisting on doing the surgery part. I don't know how much training he has, but I also don't think she's got much time left without his help."_

 _"We could have him on standby, just in case something -"_ Pepper's voice cut out as Laurel faded back into the darkness. The darkness was nice. It didn't hurt there. It didn't feel like anything at all. Just like being asleep, but without dreams to interrupt the sense of calm.

She couldn't be sure how much time had passed the next time she faded back into consciousness. Steve was saying something, his voice becoming clearer as he got closer. It sounded like he was on the phone with someone. " _\- got the bullet out. He's patching it together now, but he said something about how the magic she was using to sew it together was draining her too. I know, it was a huge mistake, but she must have thought that she could handle it. It's going to be a while."_

There was another voice there, much closer to her. It was certainly closer, but she could hardly understand it. Loki. It had to be Loki. He was whispering some sort of incantation, but part of it sounded like a prayer, his quivering voice filled with a horrible fear that he hadn't felt in a very long time. " _Odin, please. Smile upon her from the halls of Valhalla and give me strength. Mother Frigga, please. You taught me the magic I need to help her. You taught me to need… to need someone. Someone to confide in, someone to befriend. I know you led me to her. I know you would have loved her and cared for her, almost as much as I do. Please, she cannot join you so soon."_

" _How's she doing? Bruce wants an update. He went to make tea for everyone,"_ Steve was saying, coming to stand next to them.

Laurel could practically hear Loki's frown as he talked. " _She's alive, but barely. I took the bullet out, and I'm stitching everything together now. I had to start from the inside. She punctured so much, it's a miracle that she made it this far. Trying to use Asgardian magic to fix it just made her worse. I should be able to heal most of of, in time. A week and I should have it healed, but she's going to need a lot more time to come back from magic that powerful."_

More than anything, she wanted to talk to him, to be able to open her eyes and see him. If she did, though, she knew what she would see. She knew how broken he would look, how he was just holding himself together in front of the others and concentrating on healing her. But still, she was curious. Stephen Strange had taught all of his apprentices how to project themselves. Accepting the risk, especially in her fragile state, she focused all of her energy on the magic.

Sure enough, she found her astral self standing next to her body within seconds. They had moved her into her quarters, setting her up on the dining room table like she was in a makeshift operating theater. Steve was pacing in the kitchen area, still not cleaned up from battle. He kept looking over at her and checking his comms unit. Thor was leaning against the wall, watching his brother at work and offering his silent strength and support. Loki stood over her body, his fingers gliding over a massive wound as he slowly knit together a green and gold patchwork, sewing the layers of her body back together one by one. He looked like he was about to cry, or about to snap at the next person who came near him. Or both. Laurel reached out, putting an astral hand on his shoulder. " _Thank you."_ She knew he wouldn't be able to hear her, but it still made her feel better. She kissed his cheek, watching his steady hands work an extremely complicated spell. _"Thank you. I'm sorry you have to do this. I was just trying... trying to make up for everything I've done. That's why I do this, Loki. That's why I try to be a better person. If only you knew, we're not all that different after all."_

It was an incredibly clean wound for sure. That's what Nat and Pepper had been doing. They cleaned her up while her makeshift patch had held, getting her out of her dirty battle gear and into pajamas before cleaning the wound again and letting Loki get to work.

She walked her astral form out into the hall where everyone else was gathered, setting up chairs. Bruce had just returned with tea, the others gladly accepting. It looked like they were taking turns going off to take showers and clean up - most of them were clean, but some were still covered in grime from the battle. Tony had set up his comms unit as a direct link to Steve's, constantly broadcasting what was going on in the next room. " _It's astounding what he can do,"_ Steve's voice said over the comms line _. "He's almost done patching her organs back together. Skin's next, then we've got to get her into bed. I don't think he's going to want to go far, though, even then."_

Pepper returned a few minutes later, taking a seat next to Tony. She reached out for his hand, saying, " _I've got all of her stuff washed and sewn up. How's she doing?"_

" _Still stable. But he's got a long way to go."_

" _Want me to just order something for dinner? We're in no shape to cook." It was dinner time already? The jet had left for the battlefield fairly early in the morning… how long had she been out?_

Out of nowhere, it felt like Laurel's astral form had been punched in the abdomen. She doubled over, clutching her stomach and limping back to where her physical body was laying. Loki was frowning, concentrating all of his energy on keeping her alive and making sure she wasn't going to start bleeding as he worked. She felt another intense wave of pain, enough to break her concentration, pushing her back into her body and knocking her out again.

The next time she woke up, she felt the weight of her eyelids slowly lifting. She was laying in her bed, a gold, glowing bandage over half of her right side. Everything hurt, but it was a dull pain, like she had been run through a washing machine. Loki must have done something to dull it, because she knew that bullet wounds like that, the kind that ripped through your body and shredded a lot along the way, should hurt beyond anything imaginable. It was fairly dark, the room lit only by the lamp on her desk and the soft glow of the green light that Loki was tossing up and down absentmindedly as he waited. Thor sat in her desk chair, Loki perched on the desk itself. "Brother, you should get some rest. I can stay here with her for a little while if you want."

"There is no way I would be able to sleep," Loki replied, his voice hollow. "Not while she's like this. She has to wake up. I hope I did all of that the right way. Our mother was so much better at healing magic than I am. I just hope I didn't hurt her."

"She has faith in you," Thor said, getting up to stretch. "Have faith in her faith." He yawned, finally declaring, "I am going to check on those in New Asgard and get some sleep. It's nearly 3 AM. You should try to get some sleep, brother." He bade his brother goodnight, heading for the door.

After the door had closed, Loki jumped down from the desk, wheeling the chair over next to her bed. "I hope I didn't hurt you," he whispered, thinking she was still asleep. "I did everything I could. I was so careful." He sighed, the ball of light in his hand dimming. "Please don't… I need you to wake up. I need you to stay here with me. I can hardly trust myself, but I can trust you. You are the only one who sees me for more than a monster, more than the prince who will never be king. You are the only one I can… Laurel, please wake up." She felt him lean forward, folding his arms and stretching out a bit on the bed. He had leaned his head close to her shoulder, still whispering to her. "You make me so much happier… even just having someone to talk to who doesn't analyze everything for an alternative motive is nice. Laurel, please. I need you to wake up."

It took a ton of effort, but Laurel managed to open her eyes again, seeing that Loki was still lying halfway on the bed, reaching out for her hand. He ran his thumb over the back of her hand, staring into the glowing light of her bandages as he continued to talk. She could see that even now, his eyes were watering slightly. He never would have let Thor see that. "Loki," she croaked, her throat incredibly dry.

He bolted up, staring at her with wide eyes. "Say that again."

"Loki?"

His face broke into a smile as he leaned in to kiss her. "Thank the gods. Oh, thank the gods. I did everything I could. I know you still must be in pain, but I had to sew organs together and shift bones back into place. I could only dim the pain so much without hurting you even more. You won't feel better for a while, since you spent so much of your energy on Asgardian healing magic, and I'll have to change out the bandages every day, but you should be able to walk again soon." He talked quickly, wanting to tell her everything all at once. "The others have been coming by - Thor just left - but I've stayed close by since they let me back in here. Natasha and Pepper kicked everyone out to get you cleaned up, but I came right back after I had a shower. I've been so worried."

"Loki, thank you. I - thank you. I heard everything and… I'm so glad I found you." He smiled, conjuring a glass of water for her.

"Are you hungry? I don't think you should eat all that much, but it's been hours since you've had anything. I made sure you're not going to keel over from malnutrition, but I can make you something." He brushed the compliment off, helping her sit up before waving his hand and conjuring a plate of toast. "I don't know what else you'll be able to eat, but -"

Laurel winced, instinctively putting her hand to her side, which only made it worse. "Toast is fine. I don't think I'll be able to eat much of it anyway." She nibbled on a piece of toast, Loki watching her intensely. "Hey, could you make me some tea?" With a wave of his hand, he held out a full teacup. "One more thing?"

"Anything."

"Come up here and sit next to me."

"Gladly." He put the chair back, carefully settling down next to her. Wrapping his arm around her and letting Laurel lay back on him, he had to ask, "Back when I was patching you up, did you project yourself? Not a hologram, but that projection Strange teaches. I could have sworn I felt you there."

"I did. Not for long, but I had to try, just in case… just in case I didn't get the chance to talk to you again. I can't believe you did all of that." She took a sip of her tea, trying to drink slowly. Somehow, she wasn't dehydrated. That had to be Loki's doing too.

"I had to. I can't imagine losing you." He was silent for a moment, before taking a breath and confessing, "When you were lying there, all I could think of was the people I've destroyed. If I could save you, it would make up for it, at least somewhat. But I also realized something I should have told you earlier, something I've felt for a while, something I had realized one night on the roof with you -"

Laurel smiled, reaching up to give him a kiss even though it sent a shock of pain through her to do it. "You don't have to say it. I already know."


	13. Where I Should Be

A.N.: Thank you all again for the overwhelming amount of support! It means so much and helps to keep me inspired. Thank you, loves!

* * *

Laurel spent the next week laying in bed, sleeping as much as she could. The others would cycle through and visit, bringing news about the outside world and keeping her company. Invariably, someone would come by to play cards in the afternoon or after dinner, and they would sit up talking until they were all exhausted. Loki would shoo them out, saying that she needed to rest.

Loki himself would be there as often as he could, only leaving to shower, change, or bring her things. Carrying in piles of books, he would sit up and read to her, or sit beside her and read when she fell asleep. He would bring her whatever she wanted to eat, even if it meant trekking into the kitchen in the middle of the night to cook something. And he would stay there all night, waiting until she fell asleep to settle in, lying next to her. Putting his hand to her head, he would cast the same spell every night, numbing the pain in her swide so she could sleep.

Every time she wanted to get up, he would be there too. The first time she tried to stand, he had to catch her. She had insisted that she could walk on her own, but she had made it three steps before almost collapsing in pain. Loki had swooped in and put an arm around her, helping her walk further, until she could drop into a chair. It was useless to insist that she turn around and get back in bed, he knew that much. But he also knew that she needed him there.

When it started getting late Loki would insist that everyone leave, the others saying goodnight to both of them before heading out. He put away their chairs, vanishing some of them and moving others back to where they belonged before coming back over to where Laurel sat in bed. "How are you feeling?"

"It doesn't hurt as much as it did a few days ago, but I really can't wait to be back on my feet," she sighed, laying back and letting Loki get to work on her bandages. It was some sort of Asgardian magic that she hadn't seen until now, allowing for almost complete regeneration of bone and tissue. Of course, she would need to do some of her own healing, but this greatly sped up the process. Every night he would hold her hand as he undid the previous day's magic layer by layer. It felt like he was peeling away layers of skin, the pain burning more intensely with every incantation he uttered. Then he would have to cast them all again, building up the patches until a final incantation that was meant to prevent scarring. It was a nightly routine, one that she didn't particularly enjoy, but was still grateful for.

"I don't think Tony should be allowed to play poker if he's - aagh." Laurel gritted her teeth, squeezing his hand as he held the other over her wound.

"Sorry."

"It's fine, I know you have to -"

"Don't bite your lip, or I'll have to fix that too." He leaned down and gave her a kiss, continuing to mutter a spell as she took a deep breath, looking down at her wound. She couldn't see the impact that he was making, but she could feel it as another white-hot bolt of pain flashed through her stomach. He'd removed another layer. "We're almost there." he promised. "You're doing very well. Just three more layers."

"Thanks, but - wait. Can you stop for a second? Just a second. The last ones are the worst." _You deserve it. This is small compared to the pain you caused those kids in Sokovia. Just be glad the one hasn't realized you're here. No, you were just trying to help. She would understand that. But she lost everything. Just grit your teeth and get through this._

He waited a moment, letting her take another breath before he removed another layer of spellwork. It was like ripping off bandages, layer after layer, but a hundred times more intense. "You know, you're incredibly strong. Most people would have passed out by this point."

"Tell me.. Tell me about Asgard," she requested through gritted teeth. "Tell me about anything but what you're doing."

"I'm healing a wonderfully brave woman who took a bullet for me, but if you insist. Asgard is beautiful. Was beautiful. I grew up in a palace. We couldn't have everything we wanted, but we got close. There were glorious balls and parties, always something to do. But it was all destroyed. We managed to bring the people who survived Ragnarok to a new Asgard, where they're rebuilding what once was. Eventually we will move somewhere on Midgard, somewhere uninhabited. For now, though, what remains of Asgard is concealed. A desolate little place in the Asteroid Belt, but better than the hellscape that Asgard has become. I'm sorry." Peeling away the last layer of magic, he had to apologize for the pain she was in.

It was blinding, Laurel closing her eyes as she felt the full force of the bullet that had ripped through her only a week before. "Just… keep working. Keep talking. What's… what's Ragnarok?"

"Thor and I had a sister, Hela. She escaped her cage and took over Asgard, but we managed to subdue her. Not before Asgard had been melted, though. Are you crying?"

"Not as much as yesterday. What's become of them, now that your father -" She sighed, feeling the first layer of new magic settle. "What's become of them?"

"Thor is technically the King of Asgard. As the only remaining prince, I inherit the throne should anything happen to him. You know, I can't risk dulling the pain all of the time, but I have an idea." He placed a hand on her stomach, turning it icy cold.

"Oh, thank you. That's much better."

"At least being a Frost Giant is good for something," he joked, "even if it is only healing wounds." He paused, mumbling another incantation and laying another layer of magic down. "Anyway, I assume the throne after he does. He goes back to visit them as often as he can, even if he has to remain on Midgard most of the time. There was a time when I would as well, but I've found more and more reason to stay here."

"We should visit one day. I'd love to see Asgard, even if it's nothing like its former glory." She looked up at him, watching his face in the glowing green and gold lights of the magic he was working. He would weave a patchwork of gold and green threads of light, setting them down on her stomach to settle into the skin, slowly making a framework for the layers to rebuild themselves on.

Loki frowned in concentration, setting another layer of magic down. "They are not the biggest fans of me, but I am sure they would adore you."

"Thank you for doing this. For everything, really. You shouldn't have to stay with me all of the time, you shouldn't have to bring me whatever I want, you shouldn't have to -"

"Nonsense. I do this because I want to. I stay because I want to," he told her, meeting her eye for a second before going back to work. "I do all of it because I want to help you. I know you would do the same for me. One more layer." Settling the last glowing layer of magic down, he let go of her hand, helping her sit up again.

"Come here."

"I'm already here."

"No, come up here." Obligingly, he moved from his chair, coming to sit next to her on the bed. Laurel leaned her head on his shoulder, Loki putting an arm around her as she closed her eyes. "Thank you for not leaving."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Kissing the top of her head, he added, "There's something I've been meaning to ask you, by the way."

"Hmm?"

"When this is all over - all of this healing, when you can walk again and don't need me here - may I still stay with you sometimes? I must admit, I like having you here. I like waking up next to you, even if it is at 4 AM when the spells have worn off and you're in pain again and you have to wake me up to help," he admitted. "It feels… it feels good. It feels right."

"Of course you can stay. I'll stay with you sometimes, too." She draped her arm across his stomach, settling into a familiar position. No matter how long they stayed like that, neither one of them ever wanted to get up. "It does feel right. This feels right. Like this is where I should be."

Of all of the places Loki had traveled, of all of the places he had conquered, of all of the realms he had visited, Midgard continued to bring the most surprises. And in that moment, there was nowhere he would rather be. "Where I should be," he repeated, kissing the top of her head again. "Certainly where I should be."

He would spend the next few weeks helping her slowly start to walk again, staying by her side no matter how irritated with him she got or how difficult of a day it was. The others noticed this, not saying anything about it to him but being sure to point it out to each other. But they would exchange glances when they saw him in the kitchen, cooking for the two of them, or carrying an armful of books back to Laurel's room from the library. Now more than ever, they were sure that he was being changed for the better. He had become less focused on power, less focused on ruling, and more focused on being there in the moment, right where he should be.


	14. Recovery

They spent three more weeks in their routine, Laurel slowly but surely getting better. The others would come by to visit and would tell her about their missions, updating her on what was going on in their world while her own world was limited to her quarters. Loki would stay with her even when the others left for a mission in a hurry, keeping her company and making sure she had everything she wanted. Even when she was about to cry because of the pain, when he had maxed out her pain meds and the spells he could cast, he would be there, holding on to her. When she woke up in the middle of the night, reliving the terror of being shot in battle and nearly dying in the hallway, he would sit up and talk to her, making tea and settling back into bed. He spent nearly every waking moment with her, and every sleeping moment too. When she was finally able to walk across the facility without doubling over in pain, they all had reason to celebrate.

It took her a while to start training again, though. She could practice a lot of magic while laying in bed, but anything physically taxing would take time. Asgardian magic was off-limits for a long time, Loki had told her. First, she would have to start training and getting back to where she was before. The first time she was able to run a mile on the treadmill without collapsing, Steve was there to congratulate her. She would have a long road ahead of her, but she could do it. She would have to.

The parade of visitors slowed down as she got better, but she was finally able to join them for dinner or sit on the couch while they went about their work. She and Loki got plenty of movies watched when she was able to make it to the living room, and the two of them got lots of reading done all over the facility. It was nice being able to recover and have all of them there, the rotating cast of people at home, swapping out all of the time as they went on missions (and Thor went to visit his kingdom, the New Asgard that had been pioneered in the wake of Ragnarok).

The first day she was able to leave the facility, they threw a small party. She'd gone with on a mission, playing support to the support team, but it was still good to be back in the swing of things and back to work. Loki has insisted on going with to keep an eye on her, but he ended up just smiling proudly in the background as she hurled magic daggers at people. Even though it taxed him to undo and re-lay the layers of magic that helped hold her wounds together every night, he was glad to see that she was doing better. Every night there were fewer and fewer layers of magic to lay down, her tissues regenerating unnaturally quickly because of the Asgardian magic.

"Pass some beer this way," Tony said, beckoning for Thor to toss him another bottle. "Thanks."

"So do you think you'll be back in the middle of battle with us soon?" Nat asked, taking a sip of her drink and looking to Laurel. "You're looking better for sure. And Steve tells me you're going to outrun him with a little more training."

"I hope so, but we'll see if I can ever outrun Steve. But I should be back in action really soon, thanks to Loki," Laurel smiled, glancing to where he sat with his arm around her, "I've been back in the training center more and more. Hell, I'm back on my feet more and more. He's worked some miracles."

"It's nothing, really," he reminded her, as sheepishly as he could. He would never let on, but he was amazed at how well he had done with her wounds. Frigga had taught him well, but he rarely had much of a chance to practice healing magic. Combat magic was a lot more useful, at least to him.

Laurel shook her head, insisting that, "It's everything."

"I'm just glad to see you're up and walking, let alone going out to fight. You scared us there for a while," Pepper told her. She had been one of the first to see her, she and Nat running over as soon as Steve had called for help on the comms. The two of them had found Loki and Laurel in a pool of blood, Steve trying to stem the flow of red that was rapidly spreading over the floor while Loki worked to keep her alive.

"I'd say I was scared, but I wasn't conscious for a lot of it," Laurel joked, finally able to laugh about it. "I saw a little, from that astral plane thing I can do, but not much. I'm sorry I couldn't say anything to you then. I tried."

"Well, you gave us a good scare," Steve pressed as he poured himself another drink. "I still can't believe you held yourself together during that battle."

"Super-soldiers are old news, Steve. Magic is in right now," Laurel laughed. "All the young kids are doing it."

"All the 1500 year-old kids are doing it," Tony nodded, looking to Thor and Loki.

Bruce agreed, but added, "They're still kids in Asgardian terms, I think."

"In Asgardian terms," Thor shrugged the comment off. "But it's been a lot of living."

Tony leaned back in his chair, thinking about loud. "Even if you are still pretty young, the milestones would be different… wait, how old do you have to be to drive? Can you even legally drive?"

"We can. You know I've flown ships before. But speaking of milestones," Thor brought up, turning to Loki. Loki groaned, knowing he would inevitably bring up something he'd rather not discuss. "Are you two living together, or what?"

Laurel saved him from having to answer, leaning forward to talk to Thor. "Practically. I mean, he hardly left my side until I could actually walk. Now we'll stay with each other like any normal couple does. It has been a while, hasn't it? Getting shot and not knowing what day it was made me lose track of time, but it's been months."

"That it has," Loki agreed, polishing off his drink. "Weeks, in Asgardian terms."

"Are Frost Giant terms any different?" Nat asked, Laurel feeling Loki's arm tighten around her. She had no clue that she had irritated him, but Laurel knew. He hated being referred to as a Frost Giant, even now. Laurel reached for his hand reflexively, Loki giving her a brief smile.

"No."

Sensing that he wanted to leave it at that, Laurel swooped in to save him again. "I can't believe I've lived here with all of you for that long, let alone been with him. It's been a wild year."

"So if you're practically living together," Thor emphasized, "does that mean I need to issue a proclamation about you to the Asgardians?"

"Only if you want to," she shrugged. "But I'd say you should, at least before I visit Asgard. New Asgard. It sounds like such a wonderful place. I'd love to go one day, to see what it's like outside of the stories." She looked to Loki, adding, "Besides, their prince should visit more often. He's been otherwise occupied lately, but he should still visit. And take me with."

They all sat up talking for a while longer, eventually splitting off and going to bed when Steve started to nod off in his chair. Loki followed Laurel to her quarters, where they took their places at the table, pouring more drinks for themselves. "You really want to visit Asgard?"

"If it's anything like what you've told me about, I would like to. You make it sound like such a magical realm. Even if it's New Asgard, it should still be almost as amazing," she told him, taking a sip of her drink. "We should go sometime."

Loki frowned a bit. "The Asgardians, like the rest of the Midgardians around here, are not very big fans of me. But as a member of the ruling family, I should be treated with due deference. They would love to see you, though. The Midgardian woman who's made me so… different. In a good way," he clarified with a smile. "I'd have it no other way."

"So," Laurel bit her lip, finishing her drink before summoning the nerve to ask, "if we end up staying together, would I be a princess, if I may ask?"

"I'm sure you would. And the rightful Queen of Jotunheim, although I do not plan on going back there any time soon."

"Well, in that case, my prince, I say we visit Asgard soon." She got up to put their glasses in the sink, coming back to find Loki staring at her.

As soon as she was in the room, he commanded, "Say that again."

"Say what again?"

"You know very well what," he smirked, Laurel coming over to give him a kiss.

"We should visit Asgard soon, my prince." She moved to straddle his lap, winding a hand into his hair as she added, "You're definitely my prince, my handsome Prince of Asgard, my King of Jotunheim, my God of Mischief. My Loki."

"Why thank you, pet." He pulled her in for a kiss, suddenly pausing. "Laurel?"

"Hmm?" she sat back, sensing that he had something to tell her.

"I am a 1500 year old god who only takes this form because it's the one I was raised with, the one I've become most comfortable with," he confessed, Laurel running her hand through his hair as he talked. "I am a monster, I will never live up to my brother, and I am nearly universally hated. I was cast out as a child, as an unwanted Frost Giant… I'm supposed to be blue, for gods' sake."

"Show me," Laurel compelled.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Loki bit his lip, slowly turning a pale shade of blue, which grew darker and darker until he had taken on his full Jotun form. "I absolutely hate this. This is the one form I never want to be in. I never show anyone -"

Putting her hand to his face, she noticed that, "You're cold. Colder." She leaned forward and gave him a peck on the cheek, running her hand through his hair and assuring him that, "You're still just as handsome, though."

"That's not what most people say," he told her, slowly losing the blue color and morphing himself back into the Loki that she was used to seeing. "Not at all."

Laurel pursed her lips, reminding him that, "Well, I'm not most people."

"Neither am I. I'm not even human. Nor am I truly Asgardian. I am a prince, never meant to be king. A pawn in a game of chess that my father played for hundreds of years, designed to broker a failed peace with Jotunheim. I'm a criminal, and I'm not anything that anyone would ever care to have. Even Odin kept me only as a piece in his game."

"Loki, you may be witty, you may be terribly clever, but you can also be an absolute idiot. I wouldn't care to have you, I would be honored to have you," she insisted, leaning forward so their foreheads touched. "Loki, I love you. I know what you've done. I know exactly what you are. But I love you. I don't know how to get it through that thick skull of yours, but I know all of that and I love you."

"Thank you. I… I love you too." It had taken him forever to say it, but he didn't want to ruin things. He wanted to know exactly how she would react, because he was down with investing in people that would let him down. But he did love her, he knew. He had figured that out when he was sitting on the floor in a pool of blood with her, pleading with her to stay awake, so terrified at the thought of losing her. He knew it for sure then. And when he would sit up, afraid to go to sleep in case she woke up and needed him. It had become so natural, being by her side, and now he couldn't stand the thought of not being there.

"My prince, you have a lot to learn. Or a lot to remember."

"As do you, pet. You have quite a lot to learn about your prince, even now." He leaned in to kiss her again. "But thank you."

"Then teach me," she said, shifting a little on his lap and making him gasp. "Teach me, my prince. Or do you like 'king' better?"

"Either one," he breathed, pulling her closer. "Oh. Do that again, pet. Ah, do you want to…"

"Yes." She smirked a bit, adding, "Yes, please, Your Majesty."


	15. Frigga

It was late at night when Laurel and the team got home, having flown in from a mission over in Southeast Asia. Loki had stayed behind, constantly monitoring their progress from the Avengers Facility. Laurel knew she had to hunt him down soon, but for now, all she could think of was taking a shower and finding something to eat. Like her, the rest of the team was worn out, tiredly bidding each other goodnight as they went their separate ways.

Curiously, Loki wasn't in her room when she came in the door. Checking throughout her quarters, she found no sign of him. _He's got to be waiting up in the library. Shower first, then find a snack and find him. Or find him and then grab a snack. He's always up for something to eat._

Being clean never felt as good as it did after a hard-fought battle. Washing off all of the dirt and grime (and almost inevitably blood) after a battle felt almost like being transformed. Especially if you could lay around in your pajamas afterwards. Grabbing some cereal from the pantry, Laurel pocketed her phone and her keys before heading out to find Loki.

The library was dark, Laurel casting the only light into the room when she opened the door. Their usual spot was empty, stacks of books piled around their chairs. They still ended up in the library sometimes, but they would also just sit and read together in their rooms or, when Loki actually felt like being somewhat social, on one of the sofas in the living room. _Maybe he's outside._ Going up the secret stairway to the rooftop, Laurel found no glowing lights there other than the stars. No green or gold spheres of light, no sparks, no signs of magic. No Loki. _Curious. The lights are on in the gym… maybe he's gone over there. Not likely, but maybe. You never know. It's Loki, after all._

It was a decent walk over to the gym, but Laurel made the trek anyway. As she opened the door, she saw that it was only Peter. He had come to train while the rest of the team was away. Tony had given him a set of keys to the facility a while back, and he would come to train every weekend at least, and at night if he didn't have too much homework. "Hey, Miss Laurel. How'd the mission go?" He asked from a weight bench.

"We got everyone out, no injuries," she told him, sitting down on the next bench over. She ate as she watched him train, saying, "Most of the time we were gone was just travel time. Oh, hey, are you going to that press meeting with us in Wakanda next week? I think you've got the day off of school."

Peter set down his weights, sitting up to face her. "I think I'll be able to make it. I'll have to double check with my aunt tomorrow. Wait, if you're sitting here eating cereal, you're not down here to train. It's like one in the morning, isn't it? I'm just finishing up, but I got here pretty late."

"Yeah. I actually came down here to find Loki. You haven't seen him lately, have you?"

"No," Peter told her, wiping down the weight bench. "When I got here, he was raiding the pantry, but I've got no idea where he is now. He didn't say anything to me about going anywhere."

"Hmm, thanks." Laurel got up, walking with him as far as the showers. "Don't forget to ask May about her I say hi too. I haven't seen her in ages. I'll see you later, kid."

"'Night, Miss Laurel."

Letting Peter go to shower off, Laurel left the gym and headed back towards her room. Maybe Loki had used his free time to escape the facility. _You should just text him. He'll answer if he's up. He always does._ As she passed his quarters, she stopped, hearing a pained yelp coming from inside. It wasn't like a normal howl of pain, but a yelp like a wounded animal would make. Curious, she tried the door. _Locked. Of course._ A locked door was no match for her, though, Laurel waving her hand and clicking it open in seconds. "Loki, are you okay?"

She stepped inside, closing the door behind her. Setting her bowl of cereal down on his kitchen table, she followed the noise to his bedroom door. "Loki?" When she came in, he was sitting up in bed, tangled in his blankets and covered in sweat.

"Laurel?" he croaked as she tossed a glowing ball of golden light into the air, making her way over to the bed. "Come here. Please."

"What's wrong?" she asked, sitting down next to him.

Realizing how he must look, he took a deep breath, saying, "Nothing, it's fine."

Laurel pursed her lips, shaking her head. "No, I could hear you from the hall. You're literally shaking. Whatever it is, it's not okay. I know you don't like people seeing you like this, but you can tell me. I'm not going to tell anyone. Even Thor."

"Our mother died… today is the anniversary of her murder. The Sacking of Asgard - you've read about it," he told her, slowly releasing his vice-like grip on the blankets. "The Dark Elves attacked, and she was murdered by their leader and his men. She had been defending a Midgardian who was the host for a powerful cosmic force. I… I inadvertently helped to bring about her death." When he looked to her, she could see tears welling up in his eyes.

Laurel wound her arms around him, kissing his forehead and saying, "She knows you didn't mean to do it. She knows, even if she can't tell you. I'm so sorry, Loki."

He leaned into her, letting Laurel hold him. It was exceedingly rare for him to be that vulnerable, but Laurel let it happen. He needed her there now more than ever. "I was imprisoned in the Asgardian dungeons during her funeral. I never saw it. I was never allowed to mourn."

"That's awful," Laurel whispered, wiping at his cheeks. "I'm sorry."

Loki sighed, saying nothing more. She held him tightly, letting him break down, finally able to mourn the loss of the only other person in the universe who didn't think he was at least some shade of evil. Her loss had destroyed him, but there had been no time to mourn. Thor had arrived, needing him to help get revenge. And then there were things to do, places to conquer, wrongs to set right. There had never been time to mourn, so he and Thor had pushed it down, accepting the fact that their mother was gone and forcing themselves to keep moving, to keep fighting. Thor had done his mourning in private, but Loki had never allowed himself to, until now. "She was the one who protected me from my father. She was the one who taught me all of the magic she knew. She actually saw me as her child, unlike Odin. I was more than something being used to one day broker peace."

Running her hand through his hair, Laurel listened as he told her story after story about Frigga, about how she had been a wonderful mother, even if Odin had dominated their family. Once he started talking, he couldn't stop. So she listened, letting him get everything out that he wanted to share. When he finally fell silent, Laurel waited a heartbeat before saying, "She sounds like a wonderful woman. Truly worthy of being a goddess."

"I wish… I wish you could have met her," he sniffled, Laurel conjuring a box of tissues. "She would have loved you. She cared for the woman Thor brought to Asgard, but you, you she would have loved dearly. I'm sure you would have loved her too."

She reached up with one hand, spreading the ball of light in the air until it turned from a sphere to gold, blue, and green streaks, morphing into the magical Northern Lights that Loki was so fond of. His mother's magic, magic he had taught her months before. "Is there any way we can visit her? I mean, Valhalla still exists, even if Asgard's been destroyed, right? Can we go?"

"Yes, technically, but it is almost impossible to visit. We would need help. Some sort of powerful relic, or an all-powerful sorcerer… combined, our powers might be able to do it, but I can't let you use that much Asgardian magic," he told her, reaching for another tissue. "It would kill you, trying to open the portal to Valhalla. Mortals aren't capable of opening rifts like that. It isn't just a rift in space or time - it's a rift between two forms of life, one that isn't really meant to be opened and explored."

Laurel frowned, thinking aloud. "Why don't we visit the New Asgard, then? I'm sure it would do you good, being among your own people. Besides, even if they aren't big fans of you, everyone understands a day of mourning. Thor's surely made it into a national day of mourning. I know they would be glad to have their prince back. We'll talk to Thor in the morning. With his help, I can open up a portal to take us right there, even if the old system you used was destroyed."

"You would have never wanted to leave the old Asgard," Loki sighed, thinking of the castle he had grown up in. "It was beautiful. There was always something to do, and the city… well, my perspective also came with being a prince, but the city was glorious. But you would have enjoyed it."

"I'm sure I'll enjoy the New Asgard, even if it's just a bunch of stone buildings. Thor's told me that it's quite the sight, even now that they're rebuilding on an asteroid. He worries it's unsustainable, but for now, he tells me it's like seeing a prototype of the real thing."

Loki took a breath, resolving that, "If you really want to go, we can talk to Thor. In the morning." They sat together for a while, his breathing slowing back to normal as they watched the lights dancing above them. Finally, Laurel moved to get up, Loki holding on to her arm. "Stay. Please. Stay here with me." The desperation in his voice was unmistakable.

"Of course I'm going to stay. I just have to put my keys on the table so I don't stab myself in my sleep," she smiled, pulling them from her pocket and tossing them into the air. Vanishing into the next room for a moment, Laurel returned to climb back into bed with him. Loki wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in for a kiss. "I love you."

"I love you," he replied as they settled into bed. "And the Asgardians will too."


	16. New Asgard

Thor supported the idea wholeheartedly, insisting that they leave a little after lunch the next day. Saying their goodbyes to the others, Laurel and Loki conjured a portal to the New Asgard in the jet hangar, one of the largest spaces they could think of in the facility. Personally, Laurel thought it would have made more sense to use the library roof, but she also knew that Loki wouldn't want to give up their spot.

"Know that this is only temporary, because Asgard will not hold on this asteroid. But for now, our people have a place in the universe," Thor told them as they conjured the portal, slowly spinning it into existence. Ordinarily, Laurel would have been able to do it on her own, but this was a place run by another people one she was unfamiliar with, so Loki volunteered to help. Thor, though, would go through first. "Asgard is a people, not a place. Even though the place was destroyed during Ragnarok, our people survive. That is what matters."

Stepping back from the swirling loop of energy, they let Thor step through, Loki taking Laurel's hand and following in his brother's wake. The portal closed behind them, Laurel looking around at where they had ended up. Thor stood in the middle of the city, people looking at him and pointing. One by one, they began to bow.

As Thor spoke to the people of New Asgard, Laurel looked around, seeing that they had already built up a town square, stores and homes branching off onto different roads. In the time since Ragnarok had begun on the old Asgard, they had rebuilt the monuments and the palace, the outdoor theaters and the businesses. New Asgard had copied the old Asgard almost perfectly. Even though some of the glittering buildings in the distance were still under construction, Asgardian magic had sped everything up considerably. Like Thor and Loki had told her, the city glittered. The buildings were covered in white and gold, everything reminding her of ancient Grecian building styles mixed with old Norse symbolism. It was truly a fantastic place.

Gradually, people began looking at her, pointing and whispering as Thor talked. Laurel held onto Loki's hand tightly, the prince lacing his fingers into hers and standing there while his brother talked. She was spellbound, trying to take everything in. "It really is beautiful," she whispered, Loki nodding in agreement.

"Look around you. I think they've found something more beautiful," he whispered back, looking over the crowd, which was captivated more by her and less by what Thor was saying.

Finally, Thor turned back to them, confessing that, "I may have told them about you a while back. And about how you're doing the Crown Prince good. I'm sure they would appreciate it if you said something too."

"Oh, I -" It was too late, Thor already nudging her forward. There was no going back now. So she stepped forward, willing herself to speak. The crowd twittered expectantly, Laurel looking over the hundreds of subjects in front of her. "I -"

Loki stepped forward to meet her, taking his place by her side. He reached for her hand again, the crowd applauding. "Go on. I told you they would love you."

She took a deep breath, scanning the crowd. "Asgardians, I am beyond honored to be a guest here. I've heard stories about the glory of Asgard, stories of its beauty and about its wonderful people, but none of them could have prepared me for this. The New Asgard is the stuff of legend, the kind of thing that none of the stories could have prepared me for. But I'm sure you really want to hear about your prince and I, right?"

The crowd cheered as Loki groaned, Laurel laughing and pecking him on the cheek. This brought more cheers from the crowd, who had heard rumors about her and about how Loki was slowly redeeming himself, with her help. "Nothing too embarrassing," he pressed, Laurel agreeing before raising her voice again, magically projecting it so everyone could hear her.

"You've all known him for a whole lot longer than I've even been alive, but the last year I've spent with him has been a good one. I work with the Avengers, a group of people who protect Midgard from all sorts of dangers. Thor has been a great help to them as well," she acknowledged. "Loki, as you know, lives in their facility, in order to help repay his debt to humanity. We met there, and got along well fairly quickly. The rest… well, I'm sure you all know the rest." She looked to Loki, smiling and adding, "He is unlike anyone I've ever met. And while I know that he has done some truly awful things in the past, he's working on it. He really is a good man. But I know the things he's done. I know them, and I accept them. When you can truly accept someone for who they are, for what they've done, right and wrong, when you can realize that they are trying to do better, no matter how hard it may be for them or how difficult the journey… that's what love is. And my dear people of Asgard, I love your prince." She reached up and kissed him, the crowd erupting into thunderous applause.

They were led through a back alley into a tunnel that took them to the palace, the last of the Asgardian Valkyries greeting them when they arrived. She shook Laurel's hand, saying, "I've heard so much about you from Thor. You're much nicer than I expected, for someone so taken with him." She jerked her thumb at Loki. "Good thing, I guess. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a lot to discuss with Thor. It's terribly hard running a realm with a king who's only there half of the time. You two can go and explore. Just be back in time to get ready for the royal reception dinner."

"Royal reception dinner?" Valkyrie had already turned away, striding down the hall to find Thor in the throne room.

"A bit of tradition," Loki explained as he led her towards a different hallway, the walls coated in gold. Everything here had gold in it. "Whenever one of us would return, whenever a member of the royal family would return, the nobles would throw a dinner in our honor. So tonight, with the King and Crown Prince of Asgard back, they're throwing a dinner. You'll be invited too, of course."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you sit next to me," he winked, pushing open a heavy wooden door. "If they build this just like the palace on Asgard, I can give you the grand tour."

"Wait." Laurel closed her eyes, putting a hand to his forehead. She could easily compare the two layouts, a skill she only used in battle. "They did. Except there are fewer bedrooms - where yours and Thor's were, they expanded the grand ballroom and the library."

"I always forget that I have a walking map by my side," he joked, leading her down another corridor, one lined with paintings of the old kings. "Oh look, there I am. I see my brother's had his portrait put up."

"Hmm, it's a good likeness," Laurel said, stopping in front of Loki's picture. "But I think I still like the real thing better."

Continuing down the hall until they reached the last possible door, Loki told her to close her eyes. He took her hand and brought her into the room, Laurel opening her eyes to see the biggest library she had ever been in. Books of all colors and sizes lined row after row of shelves, titles brushed onto their sides in a wide variety of languages. "This place is amazing," she breathed as they walked down one of the rows of shelves at random. She stopped to pick up a volume bound in silver, flipping through it and trying to decipher the Old Norse writing.

Loki nodded, telling her that, "Some of these books are hundreds, even thousands of years old. That one nearly as old as I am." Laurel's eyes widened and she gingerly set it down, taking a half-step back from the entire shelf. "They're all magically preserved, so there's no need to worry. They were either taken from Asgard while everyone fled Ragnarok or salvaged from Midgard. It's a book of fairy tales, if you were wondering."

He led her through the rest of the palace, showing her nearly all of the rooms, save for Thor's quarters and the throne room, which was currently occupied by the New Asgardian government and its advisors. They wound up in the massive gardens outside of the palace, wandering among plants and flowers that Laurel had never seen before. Some of them were similar to those they had on Earth, but most of them came from across the galaxy and from other parts of the Nine Realms. They were still in the gardens when a servant arrived, announcing that it was time to start getting ready for the dinner. "King Thor will be expecting you promptly," she said, leading them inside, towards Loki's quarters.

A group of attendants was waiting, the two of them splitting off to get ready. Laurel was led to a separate room where a group of women brought her dresses to choose from while others did her makeup. "Is it true you're from Midgard? Like, a real Midgardian?" one of the younger women asked as she brushed out Laurel's hair. "You've got such beautiful hair, ma'am."

"Thank you. And yes, I am a real, flesh-and-blood Midgardian."

"If I may ask - I don't mean to sound impudent, but Prince Loki is widely regarded as… well, as a traitor, as a murderer, as someone terribly dangerous. How can you reconcile that with… with loving him?"

Laurel smiled, assuring her that it was a good question. "I know about what he's done. But from the day I met him, he's been nothing but kind to me. He's always treated me well, and he's made an effort to be a better person and help humanity since I've known him. He realizes the things he's done and how they've hurt people. He's caused terrible destruction and ruin, but he's working to make himself better. And if you truly love someone, that's what you see. You choose to see the fact that they're trying to do better, and not the ghosts of their past."

When they were finally reunited, Loki took her hand, leading Laurel to the door of the dining room. They were let in, taking their places as he leaned over to whisper, "You look wonderful. I'd kiss you now, if it wasn't horribly bad manners to do right before the king is about to speak."

They were sat next to Thor, Loki on his right, and laurel next to him. On Thor's left was Valkyrie, followed by different advisors, nobles, and important members of the New Asgardian government. They would all eventually introduce themselves, but there was no way that Laurel would remember all of their names. Everyone was staring at her, Laurel nearly frozen in her seat as she realized that she knew nothing about asgardian feast customs, nothing about their food, nothing about how she was expected to behave. _Just assume it's like having dinner at Buckingham Palace. Pretend._ Loki, sensing how uncomfortable she was, reached for her hand under the table. He had hardly let go of her all day, offering her some sort of stability in an entirely new world.

Thor stood, looking over the table as he announced, "In honor of the glorified King Odin and Queen Frigga, may their souls rest well in Valhalla, we will be hosting a ball tomorrow night, for those present, their guests, and as many of those in Asgard as would like to attend." Loki squeezed her hand under the table, Laurel knowing that he had not voted in favor of such a crowd of people in the palace. "Now, in honor of all of the kings and queens before, let us feast." He took his seat again, turning to Loki as the first course was brought out. "Brother, they may not be convinced yet, but their hearts are softening towards you."

Interrupted by a servant bringing them their first plates, Loki didn't get a chance to answer him. While they feasted, he was rather quiet, talking to Laurel about inconsequential things and only giving terse answers to most of the Asgardians who dared to talk to him. Suspecting it was because of the anniversary of his mother's death and the now impending ball, Laurel went along with it. It was only natural for him to react like that, after all.

When dinner was over, everyone sat around talking, lounging as they drank and talked. Loki, however, was ready to be out of there, so he and Laurel excused themselves. They would not be missed, Thor easily filling in the gap in their conversations and going back to discussing trade and deals with nearby planets, all sorts of things a kind had to be concerned with.

The two of them made their way down a maze of hallways, Loki finally pushing open a door and holding it open just wide enough for the two of them to squeeze themselves into the room. He threw a few glowing spheres of golden light into the air, illuminating the room just enough for Laurel to see where they were. Loki went to sit down as she took it all in, noticing how detailed and ornate the decorations were in there. She spun around to face him, asking, "Is this really…?"

"That it is," he nodded, sitting back in the golden throne that he had occupied for a brief time. "While everyone else is occupied, I can sit here, at least for a little while." He sighed, Laurel coming over to sit on the arm of the throne. There was another throne there for a queen, but she didn't feel right taking it. So she sat on the arm. "You know, being on Asgard always reminds me of how limited my influence is, how much more power Thor will always wield here. Well, except for the few years where I was king, but that was a rather short time."

"Where's the man who tried to conquer New York? The one who ruled Asgard? The wonderful king who they were deprived of too early?" Laurel asked, raising an eyebrow.

A devilish look crossed his face. "You want to see that?" he growled, magically locking the door from where he sat.

"Here?" Laurel smirked, glancing back at the door.

"Kneel, Midgardian." His voice softened for a second as he added, "If you'd like, of course. Only if you'd like."

Laurel moved from her perch on the arm of the throne, smiling. "Of course, Your Majesty."


	17. A Brotherly Warning

Rolling over in bed, it took Laurel a few minutes to realize where she was. Light streamed in from a giant window, illuminating a bedroom fit for a prince. Even here, everything had been accented with gold. His room had a lot more green than the gold-and-white theme of the rest of the palace, but it was just as beautiful. Loki was still asleep, dozing in the sunlight. His hand stretched out, reaching for her even in sleep. It made her smile, realizing how used to each other they had gotten, how very intertwined their lives had become that it was a natural reaction to seek each other out. She leaned over and kissed his cheek, breaking the silence by whispering, "I love you, my dear Prince of Asgard."

Out of nowhere, he bolted up and kissed her, making Laurel fall back onto a pile of pillows. "I love you too," he grinned as he rolled on top of her.

"How long have you been awake?" Laurel laughed as he kissed her again.

"Long enough to feel you sit up and kiss me." He leaned in for another kiss, moving towards her neck. "What time is it?"

She looked to the clock by the side of the bed, saying, "Nearly noon, Your Majesty. They let us sleep in."

"Mmm. We've got until at least one before they come to get us. Then we'll be launched into a day of getting ourselves ready and fed and dressed, then the ball and all of those people," he told her softly, kissing her neck as Laurel wound her hands into his hair. "I can't wait to see you in whatever dress you have made. We have seamstresses here that can pull off anything… and I certainly can't wait to take it off of you."

"Oh… Why can't we live like this forever?"

"Because someone just had to be a superhero," he smiled at her, his hair falling into her face, "and she has to save the world every so often. And because there are actual royal responsibilities that I would rather avoid, even if this is all it seems like."

"Then can we vacation here? Please?"

"Whatever you want, my princess."

Far sooner than they would have liked, an attendant knocked on their door, telling them that it was time to start preparing for the ball. Loki was greeted by a whole team of people, filling him in on the goings-on of New Asgard and telling him that they had a lot to do to prepare. Laurel was shepherded into another room, where a group of women was waiting to start taking her measurements. Before she was led away, she stopped Loki, whispering, "I'll see you later, my prince."

He kissed her cheek, saying, "I won't see you until they bring you down the stairs into the ballroom. Enjoy your spa day, my dear."

"Then I'll savor the thought of seeing you in full Asgardian dress wear and spending all evening with you." She kissed him one more time before heading off with a full team of people who would be helping her get ready for her first official appearance in front of all of Asgard. Even though the ball was officially in Odin and Frigga's honor, it would be used as a chance to show her off, to show that there was a future for Asgard, even now. Especially now, when they needed that morale boost the most.

Laurel spent her day going through a series of Asgardian spa treatments, having her every need and want attended to. It was odd, having people on hand for whatever she wanted. It must have been an interesting way to grow up. People to bring you food, people to open doors for you, you didn't even have to wash your own hair if you didn't want to. Some of it she was sure she could get used to, but definitely not everything. It was one thing to have someone take your measurements, disappear, and come back with a new dress, but it was another to have someone there specifically to wash your hair. Hours later, Laurel was done, feeling more put-together than she ever had before.

Eventually she was led to another room and given dinner, careful not to spill anything on the robes that had been piled on top of her dress. When she was done, an older woman came up, touching up her makeup and helping her shed the robes they had given her. "You're absolutely breathtaking, my dear," the woman smiled, leading her out of the room and into the depths of the palace. "The Prince will be delighted to see you. Rumor has it he's been talking to his attendants about you all day."

"Where are we going now?" Laurel asked, looking around at the hallway. "I haven't been this way before."

"To the anteroom. Upstairs you will meet up with the rest of the royal family, and then be announced one by one, if they haven't started already. They like to keep you separated, but I'll see what I can do," she explained, stopping outside of a guarded door. She turned back to Laurel, straightening her dress a bit before nodding the one of the guards, who showed them inside.

The room they had entered was small, made even smaller by sheets that had been draped to make even smaller rooms - cubicles, almost - that held everyone to be announced to the court. The two of them passed the first cubicle, where she heard Thor's voice talking to an attendant. The second one also contained two shadows, but neither of them were talking. _Loki, probably._ Stopping at the third one, she and the woman went inside, waiting as others took their places in the cubicles behind them in line. "Why do they keep us separated?" Laurel faced forward, knowing that at any minute, she would be in front of all of New Asgard again.

"Tradition." It was a simple answer, but it made sense. Every member of the court would be presented individually, on their own merit. Even a king and queen would be presented before the rest of Asgard individually. "Ah, here we go." Sure enough, they heard footsteps, Thor being led out first. "And the Prince. And now you. Go. Walk straight out down the stairs." They began walking, Laurel's attendant continuing, "Down the stairs and right where you see the others. Remember to smile. And watch your feet."

Suddenly her attendant broke off, Laurel alone at the top of the grand staircase. A huge crowd was gathered below. She took a deep breath, smiling and looking over the crowd of Asgardians as she descended the stairs. Thor stood at the bottom, in full regalia. Someone was announcing her name, but she hardly paid any attention, her eyes drawn to where Loki stood next to his brother. He was dressed up like a true Asgardian prince, his hands clasped behind his back as he waited. But he was still smiling at her, watching her intently as she made her way down the stairs towards him.

"Hi," Laurel whispered as she reached his side, turning to stand next to him and watch the others as they were announced. "You look incredibly handsome."

"You look… there aren't words for it," he whispered back, the two of them pretending to pay attention to whoever was coming down the stairs after them. "Green?"

"I look good in green," she shrugged, still facing forward.

"Hmm, that you do. But... my colors?"

"I wear enough of my colors back on Earth. I figured you'd be a fan of that change."

Valkyrie shot them a look from where she stood at Laurel's side, Loki blatantly ignoring her and whispering, "That I am. You should wear them more often, princess." Laurel bit her lip, repressing a smile as Valkyrie scowled at him yet again.

After everyone had been announced and Thor had made a toast to Odin and Frigga, a band began playing and people moved to the dance floor. Thor and Valkyrie moved out first, and dutifully, Loki took Laurel's hand, leading her out after them. The New Asgardian king and the Prince of Asgard led the first dance, welcoming others to join them as the first song blended into the second.

Laurel knew there were eyes on her as they whirled around the dance floor, people watching and gossiping about the woman who could potentially become the new Princess of Asgard. They were all quite nice, not saying anything to her face, but she could tell that as soon as she had turned her back, the whispers would start up again. "Don't worry, they like you," Loki said, noticing that Laurel was looking over his shoulder.

"They have to," she objected, keeping her voice low as they danced. "They have to at least respect who I am. But they may just only tolerate me."

Loki shook his head, telling her that, "They're fascinated by you. I spent some time listening in. They're fascinated with the Midgardian woman who's given them some sort of hope for their prince. They want to know absolutely everything about you. I've heard women talking about dying their hair your color or finding robes like the ones you wore last night, or copying your Midgardian clothes, and a few men… well, I'll just say more than a few people are rather jealous of me." He smiled mischievously, leaning in to give her a kiss as they spun towards the center of the dance floor.

"You know I only have eyes for you," Laurel assured him. "By the way, you definitely need to dress up more. I'm liking this ball attire. Even on Earth, you look good in fancy clothes." She leaned her head on his shoulder as the song slowed, letting out a breath that she hadn't noticed she had been holding. It was nice having him there, having him to guide her through the dizzying feeling of being, quite literally, on a different planet. "Loki?"

"Hmm?"

"Have I told you that I love you recently?"

"Because I'm a prince and I bring you to all sorts of balls and let you stay in my palace?" he teased, steering them out of the center of the room. "Or because I'm terribly clever, devilishly handsome, and can make you laugh?"

"Mmm, because you're… it just feels right being here with you. Even when I've been thrown into an entirely different world, it feels right, because I've got you here." A group of women nearby beamed, turning to whisper amongst themselves and shooting glances back at the two of them. Clearly, they had been listening in.

"How much have you had to drink?"

"Why?" She looked up at him, Loki noticing how starry her eyes looked. He thought for a second before beginning to laugh. "What are you laughing at? It's not funny!"

"I forgot to warn you that Asgardian drinks are a lot stronger than the ones you're used to. Last night it didn't matter, because across the nine realms, all wine is wine," he explained, taking her hand and leading her through the crowd until they had reached a bartender. He grabbed her a glass of water before continuing, "The other drinks, however, are much stronger than what you have on Midgard."

Taking a sip of her water, she scanned the crowd, noticing that Thor was busy talking to an Asgardian woman and her friends, making them all laugh before asking one of them for a dance. Valkyrie had stationed herself at the other bar, talking to a woman who had taken the seat next to her, both of them quickly downing drink after drink. "Can we sit down for a bit?"

Loki looked around the room, deciding, "Let's escape. I know exactly where I should take you." He took her hand and guided her out of the ballroom, bringing her to a stop in front of a massive painting of an ancient king on a horse. It wasn't Odin, but she had no time to wonder further, since Loki had wrenched the painting off of the wall and revealed a secret door. "Come on, ladies first."

Stepping into the tiny hall behind the painting, Laurel cast a few glowing spheres of light into the air. "Where does this go?"

"You'll see. Just walk."

They continued on for a few minutes, following the twists and turns of the passageway until they reached another door, coming out of a panel in the wall of a room Laurel recognized. They were back in Loki's chambers, out in the drawing room that he mainly used for reading. Kicking off her heels, Laurel dropped into one of the armchairs, but Loki immediately grabbed her hand and stood her up again, guiding her to the balcony.

The two of them sat on the floor of the balcony in their formal wear, looking up at the sky. "It looks so much different from here," Laurel noticed, leaning back onto him. "You know, a few years ago, I never would have thought I'd be sitting on another planet… I would have thought I was crazy. And with a god, nonetheless. An actual god. I would've sounded crazy for sure."

Loki wrapped his arms around her, letting her lay on him as she watched the sky, pieces of debris streaking through the atmosphere that they had created when the Asgardians began building their new city. As they fell, they created trails of light like comets. "I never would have thought I would be sitting here, on a New Asgard, with a Midgardian woman. Not someone like you." He kissed the top of her head, adding, "Certainly not someone who is far beyond too good for me."

"I wouldn't say 'good' at all," Laurel frowned, Loki running his thumb over her hand as if asking her to continue. "Not if… shit, I've already said too much. Damn your Asgardian drinks." She smiled a bit, but her voice dropped as she confessed, "A few years ago, I was working in Sokovia, as part of a project that focused on two superhuman experiments. I was a psychologist, assigned just to them. I made sure they weren't being pushed too hard, but also that they weren't hiding the extent of their abilities to avoid going through the trials. It was an awful thing to do, testing those kids and seeing just how far the scientists could push them. I... it may have been the scientists pushing them to the edge, but I was the one who said they could handle it. I was the one who signed off, gave them the final clearance. It hit me one day... the boy broke down and started crying, they were forcing him to run so quickly, to train harder than anyone could... it made me realize how evil I was. How much I was hurting them, how much I was allowing them to get hurt. I quit that night, and resolved to help people, to bring more good than bad into this world. I got out before it all fell apart, but I had to find somewhere to lay low. So I moved to New York. I figured I could be pretty anonymous there. That worked for a while, but I ended up working in a hospital with this brilliant surgeon who nearly died and then discovered the Mystic Arts. That's how I started training with Stephen Strange. You know all of the rest."

"So you're a war criminal too?"

"Don't tell the others," she pled. "That's why I try to be so good, why I do everything. I want to... I can't fix what I've done, but I can atone for it. The boy was killed in Sokovia, but the girl is still out there. She works with the Avengers, but she's been in hiding for a while now. I still don't think I could ever look her in the eye. Loki, I just feel so guilty, and no matter what I do, it won't fix things for those kids. Please, don't tell anyone."

"I won't," he promised, realizing that there was still much about her that he didn't know.

She kept talking, telling him that, "That's why I understand what it's like, trying to be a better person. I had to leave everything behind to even try to make a start in the right direction. I was running, and I ran right into the same business that I ran from. Everything had been flipped, though. This time I was one of the good guys. It felt right, training in the Mystic Arts. It was so unlike anything I'd known, and I loved it. Then I met the others, and you, and…" She trailed off, turning her head to look up and give him a kiss. "I love you, Loki. My dear Prince of Asgard."

"I love you too."

"Thank you for bringing me here. It's beyond beautiful," she sighed, watching as a rather large chunk of rock trailed through the atmosphere, creating a brilliant silver light in the sky. "I wish we could stay and not have to worry about… about all of the things we have to deal with on Earth. I'm a good person here. No one knows... no one knows anything about me, other than what Thor's told them, and he doesn't know... Tony does, and so does Steve. The others have no clue... I wish we could stay here."

"Hmm, I would rather return to Midgard," Loki told her as she silently pointed out another object streaking through the sky. "It may be nice here, but I miss our lives. There is only so much to do here, only so much of Asgard that I can put up with at a time. I'd much rather have the open judgement of the Midgardians than the whispers that swirl around here when they think I'm not listening."

Laurel looked up at him again, asking, "They whisper about you?"

"They know who I am, just like they do back in Midgard. But they have to conceal how they feel about it, since I'm their prince. So they whisper. They circulate rumors. They talk when they think I'm not around, or when they think I'm not going to find out. I don't quite fit in anywhere, at least not any more."

"I'm sorry," she frowned, moving to wrap her arm over his stomach, Loki holding her closely. "You know, you can fit here. You fit in my arms perfectly. Plus you're making everything feel… less like everything is spinning. I promise I won't throw up on you, let's just not move for a bit."

He smiled endearingly, remembering again how much Midgardians were affected by Asgardian drinks. Normally, he would have pointed it out, but he shrugged it off, simply telling her that, "I think this is where I would like to be."

The two of them sat up for a while longer, just watching the sky. Laurel was fascinated, never having left her planet before. She stared up at the sky for the longest time, but held onto him like she feared he would melt away at any second. Loki was just glad to be away from the crowd in the ballroom, away from the stares and the gossip. He had never been a fan of it. Sitting out on the terrace with her, watching the sky, he realized that there was no place he would rather be. _Mother, I wish you could see her. I wish you could meet her. I wish you could know how much she makes me feel. Oh, gods, I really do love her. Oh, gods..._

Finally deciding to go inside, Loki helped Laurel to her feet, dusting off her gown and opening the door for her. Laurel pulled him inside, giving him a kiss and winding her arms around him as he closed the door. "Come here, you."

"No, no, no," he shook his head, kissing her cheek instead. "You, my dear little Midgardian, are in no place to be making decisions. I will lay in bed next to you, but you need to sleep all of this off."

"Loki -"

"'Loki' nothing. Go change into your pajamas, take your makeup off, brush your teeth, and come back here."

"Okay." Laurel sighed, doing as she was told. As soon as she dropped into bed, she realized how utterly exhausted she felt, Loki pulling her close and letting her lay back on him as she yawned.

He kissed her forehead, saying, "I'm glad I had you there to go through all of those formal presentations with me. I detest court procedure. But I hope you had fun tonight."

"I did. Mmm, I love you, Loki. I love you so much."

Smiling a bit, he gave her another kiss. "I love you too."

Both of them were asleep within a few minutes, watching the night sky through the giant bay windows as they drifted off. When Laurel rolled over, however, she felt the other side of the bed was empty. "Loki?" Glancing up at the noble grandfather clock on the wall, she realized that it was nearing three in the morning. They had gone to bed around two, or so she thought. It really hadn't been that long. "Loki?"

Standing up was a mistake. Everything swirled for a second, Laurel remembering how much Asgardian alcohol affected her. She stood still, holding onto one of the bedposts for a minute before going to grab a bathrobe. Loki wasn't in his chambers at all - she checked the bathroom, the terrace, and the drawing room that he would sit up and read in, finding no sign of him anywhere. Stepping into the hall, she closed the door as softly as she could, padding down the corridor. Taking a few turns, she eventually came upon a cracked door, light streaming out into the hall. Whoever was inside was yelling, trying to keep their voice down, but failing spectacularly.

"She is… a mere speck in the lifespan of an Asgardian god! You once told me that a Midgardian woman turned me soft, and now look at what you're -"

"She may be, but she is still important! The sacrifices I made for Jane Foster -"

Peering into the room, Laurel saw Loki and Thor standing there, both of them looking defensive. Loki was in his pajamas, Thor still in his full regalia from the ball. "Brother, you know I care about her, but I want you to consider this before you go any further -"

"Further? Oh, the things you don't know -"

"You think I don't know? I'm talking about falling for her, really falling for her. You know what happens when an Asgardian -"

"I am not an Asgardian." Loki's voice had grown cold, pointed and deadly. "I was never an Asgardian, not by birth. My people live just as long, I know, but you do not get to lord this over me. You do not get to treat me like your kid brother, like a child in need of guidance. I know very well what I've fallen into. You think I don't know? You think I haven't thought about it? I lay awake at night, looking at her and thinking of how lucky I am. Then I cannot go to sleep, because I know every moment of my life is so much more in hers. Because I know she doesn't have the time that I do. You think I've never considered that?"

"Brother, I simply want you to be careful."

"Careful? It's a bit late for that now," he hissed, turning on his heel to leave. Thor called after him, but Loki was too fast, pushing the door open and coming into the hall before Laurel could turn herself invisible. She ducked into a shadow, but he could sense her movement. As soon as he saw her, Loki's face softened. "Oh, I… how long have you been out here, pet?"

"Not long. I'm sorry, I woke up and you were gone and…"

"It's alright," he smiled, taking her hand and walking with her back to his chambers. "Here, give me your robe. Now get into bed." Laurel handed her bathrobe over, climbing back into bed as Loki sat down next to her.

"What are you -"

He put a hand to her head, whispering, "Go to sleep, love. You haven't seen anything, or heard anything. You just didn't feel well and got up to get water, right?"

"Loki, I -" An overwhelming sense of calm came over her, Laurel starting to forget what she had seen. "Yeah. I… I must have. I… come back to bed, my prince. Let's just go to sleep. I'll be fine in the morning."

"I'll be there in a moment," he promised, waiting until she had fallen asleep again to get up. Hopefully the spell would hold and she wouldn't remember any of the argument when she woke up. Deep down, he knew she was too powerful for that kind of mind control, but he could still hope.

* * *

A.N.: A bit of a long chapter, but I hope y'all enjoyed it. Thank you so much for the ind reviews and messages. Y'all are the best!


	18. Mind Reading Mishaps

_It's so bright. It's so damn bright._ Laurel sat up in bed, her head pounding. Loki was still asleep next to her, laying on his stomach. He was talking in his sleep, Laurel only able to make out a couple of the words. _Damn Asgardian alcohol, I'm never drinking that again._ She injured herself a couple of painkillers and a glass of water, downing them quickly and closing her eyes again. "Thor… won't listen… did the same thing… not fair…"

"Loki, love, please do shut up," she mumbled, reaching over to where he lay. She sank back down in bed, throwing her arm over his back and balancing her chin on his shoulder. "Your hair smells good, though." Closing her eyes and trying to go back to sleep, she listened to Loki, who still whispered a few words as he dreamt.

A little while later, Loki rolled over to face her, kissing her good morning. "How are you feeling?"

"Like Hell," Laurel groaned, covering her eyes with her hand as she turned away from the light streaming in from the wall of windows. "I'm never drinking again."

"That's what they all say," he laughed, giving her another kiss. "Do you want to just eat breakfast here? I can make the servants bring us something."

"Please. And can you close at least one of the curtains? Thanks." Loki waved his hand, one of the curtains closing across the room. "It's way too bright outside."

"Here, this might help." He put a cool hand to her forehead, saying a few words in Old Norse. Her headache eased a bit, the light and sound not as painful.

"Thank you." She rolled onto her side to face him. "Can I ask you something?"

"You just did."

Laurel pursed her lips, saying, "No, silly. Last night, I swear… it might have just been a dream, but I swear you and Thor were up arguing over something. I could picture it almost like it was real. I'd gotten up and you weren't here, so I went to find you… You two were arguing about something, and you ended up leaving him there…" She shook her head, trying to remember more. "It must have been a dream."

"I haven't gotten up since I fell asleep," he told her, not technically lying, but not telling the whole truth either. "Why would I want to leave you to go pick a fight with my brother?" He gave her a kiss, sitting up and looking to see that it was already the middle of the afternoon. "Maybe we'll make that breakfast into lunch. I think we'll head back to Midgard today."

"Do we have to go back so soon?"

"I'd rather not deal with my brother any more, at least for the time being," he replied as he got up. "I'll be right back, love. Hopefully with something to eat."

"Mhm." Laurel had already closed her eyes again, hearing him walk across the room, the door clicking shut as he left.

The two of them ate lunch in bed, Loki telling her all about what he had been filled in on the moment he had stepped out of his chambers. The ball had been a huge success, all of New Asgard celebrating Odin and Frigga's legacy in the palace and in the streets. Everyone was taken with the Midgardian woman who their prince was so attached to, he reported. She was the topic of a lot of gossip and speculation, most of it positive. Thor had avoided him, he said, because of something he'd brought up earlier. Leaving it vague, Loki told her about how tailors across New Asgard were trying to copy the dress she had worn the night before, already selling out of them, even though they had hardly been on the racks for a day.

After they had cleaned up from lunch, they gathered their things, Laurel going to say goodbye to Thor before they left. He would be joining them back at the Avengers Facility that night or the next day at the latest, sicne he had a lot more to do as New Asgard's monarch. He seemed like he was vaguely annoyed at the mention of Loki's name, but he said nothing to her about it, telling her instead to have a safe trip and that he would see them soon.

Opening a portal back to the library of the facility in the hallway, Loki and Laurel stepped through, closing the gate between New Asgard and the Earth for the time being. They weren't home for long when Stave came to knock on Laurel's door, asking her how her trip had been and wondering if she wanted to help him cook dinner. "I've got some new recipes to try out, but I'll need a hand in the kitchen."

"Sure," Laurel smiled, glad to have something to do. She had been thinking of running a load of laundry, but this was a lot more fun. Steve could either pull things off flawlessly in the kitchen or make tiny mistakes that led to big problems, like accidentally using salt in place of sugar by accident. Definitely the worst batch of cookies they had ever tasted. "Do you know if Bruce is done in the laundry room? Ah, never mind, I'll just do it after dinner."

Loki actually came to have dinner with them, which, whicl emore of a regular occurrence now, was still surprising to some of them. He had gotten into the habit of coming to dinner when Laurel was around, invariably taking a seat next to her. He didn't say much, especially if everyone was there, knowing that some of them would look for any opportunity to verbally attack him. Most of them still didn't trust him, no matter how long Laurel spent trying to convince them otherwise. There was something they couldn't shake about him trying to take over the world and nearly destroying a city in the process. But still, he came to sit with them and eat, sometimes saying a few words.

He would even keep Laurel company if it was her turn to do the dishes, helping her get things into the dishwasher, almost like they were a normal couple. If it was her turn to cook, he would sometimes come out of the library or his rooms early, sitting on the kitchen counter and watching her. He could cook fairly well, a skill he rarely showed off. When everyone else had gone out on a mission, he would make her dinner, pulling off intricate recipes using ingredients that she hardly ever cooked with. Most of the time, though, he mooched food from the others, coming to eat but never volunteering to cook.

When dinner had been cleaned up and Steve and Laurel had put all of the dishes in the dishwasher, Laurel went off to start her laundry. That was the thing about being a superhero - everyone in the world saw the results of their missions and knew that they had to train a lot, but no one seemed to know that they spent their free time just like everyone else did. They still had laundry to do, dinners to cook, books to read, movies to watch. They still had their fights with their friends and their inside jokes. They still had their holidays and birthdays, even if they were a little more mobile on the calendar because invasions of the Earth and clandestine missions were notoriously difficult to schedule.

So Laurel spent her evening doing laundry, going to visit Loki in the library when everything had been folded and put away. He was perched in his usual chair, a plate full of cookies on the table beside him. There were also two cups of tea, one of them in her favorite mug. "This one's for you," he said as he read, levitating it over to her as she went to find a book.

"Thanks. Can I test out a spell on you?"

He didn't look up from his book. "Depends on what it is."

"It's a mind reading thing. I've only read about it, but I think I can do it. I just need someone to practice on." She came back to stand next to his chair, waiting.

Finally, Loki closed his book, setting it aside. "Come on, then, let's take all of this outside." He grabbed the plate and his cup of tea, Laurel leading the way to the rooftop. Even if the magic they had to practice was small, they always ended up out there. As he settled into his spot, he had to ask, "What kind of mind reading is this?"

"Nothing terribly invasive. I just need you to think of something and, well, you'll see." Laurel sat down across from him, both of them close to the edge of the roof. They would usually sit there, having enough room to cast their spells without having to worry about falling or burning a hole in the main part of the roof. "Let's try something simple. Think of a color."

"Alright." Laurel took a deep breath, putting her palm to his forehead and closing her eyes. She reached out, doing everything just as she had read. "Don't hesitate. Just let the magic work."

Biting her lip, Laurel opened her eyes again. "Orange?"

Loki winked, telling her that, "That would have been my answer for the 'think of a food' question too."

"Now think of an animal," she instructed, closing her eyes and raising her hand again. "Got it?"

"I do. It's interesting, I can feel you reaching into my mind. I don't know how to describe it, but I can tell when you're there."

Laurel smiled, asking, "Is it a snake?"

"Good. Try something more difficult than that."

"Okay, think of a phrase -" She paused, having not moved her hand from his forehead. Slowly a smile spread across her face. "Aww, I love you too. This is so cool." Opening her eyes, she saw Loki beaming.

"That's fairly advanced magic. Now you've just got to master it without actually touching the person. Imagine how much we could talk about the others without them ever knowing."

"That'll be my incentive," Laurel laughed. "Okay, okay, now think of some sort of memory. Pick something I already know, though."

"Got it."

She took a breath, focusing all of her energy. It was a lot more than a single word or an image this time. "The first time we met, when I walked into the library. You were reading something about mythology and you were annoyed that this Midgardian had just interrupted you, intruding in your library. Greek? Roman? Something like that. You thought Thor had sent me to find you. I can even see what I'm wearing. This is odd, I can feel it like I was you - Loki, wait, what is… don't… oh my god."

Loki grabbed her hand, pulling it away, but she had already seen too much. Somehow she had skipped between memories, finding a particularly terrible set from Asgard. Something to do with where certain memories were stored, perhaps? "How much did you see?"

He was too late. She was already inconsolable, sobbing at the massive influx of painful memories that she had just witnessed. They had been awful in the moment, but experiencing all of them at once had to be even worse. "Loki, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to… I'm sorry... they hurt you so much, oh my god…"

"Ssh, I'm alright now," he whispered, pulling her into his arms as sobs wracked her body. "It's alright. I'm right here. I'm sorry you had to see all of that. Laurel, it's okay, really."

"No, it's not. I don't know how you're ever okay after… after…"

Loki kissed the top of her head, knowing there was nothing he could do but let her cry. There was plenty of reason to. The horrors stored in his mind that she had seen would make any normal person break down.


	19. The Horrors of the Asgardian Dungeons

A.N.: This is gonna be a kinda rough chapter. It expands on what all flashed through Laurel's mind in the end of the last one… just a warning, it might be hard for some of y'all to read. Feel free to skip to the next chapter (the TLDR version of this chapter is 'Loki's been through some shit in the Asgardian dungeons, Laurel finds out and finally realizes what his horrible nightmares are about, but there's gonna be a really sweet ending) (references to torture and psychological conditioning - not going too graphic but some people may not be comfortable with it at all). Seriously, this might be a difficult chapter. Just be advised. (Casually going to post this a few hours after I posted the last one bc I'm feeling generous and bc I've been writing like crazy lately).

* * *

 _The Asgardian dungeons were not a nice place to end up. While the holding cells weren't all that bad, the floors below them held unspeakable horrors. Loki had the privilege of being dragged out of his cell almost every day or so to be brought downstairs, being made to pay for everything he had done, for all of the realms he had wronged. Every day brought new forms of pain, new horrors that were left up to the king's chief torturer, a position reserved for some of the most sadistic Asgardians to ever walk the planet._

 _The only constants were the chains. Chained to chairs, to the wall, the the floor, locked in place so he couldn't react. The cold bite of iron was a constant, everything else changing whenever Odin's chief torturer felt like it. Sometimes the cold metal was the only relief possible. Sometimes even the metal was used against him, heated up until it scalded at the slightest touch._

 _His hair had long since been roughly cut short, when he had first been stripped of all of the honors he had once been afforded. No more dress robes, no more long hair. He still had the title of a prince, but nothing more. "Odin should have left you to die in that godsforsaken realm when he had the chance," he heard from a corner of the room, a blinding, white-hot pain radiating through his body. He couldn't help but to howl in pain, sinking his teeth into his lower lip to stop from making any more noise. "Who would want a child from those monsters?"_

 _The words processed almost as much as the physical pain did. He already knew what he was. He already knew he was a monster, a different species that the Asgardians reviled. It had been a carefully kept secret what he was, but it had inevitably leaked, at leas in rumors. And of course, nothing was off-limits for Odin's favorite torturer._

* * *

 _This one was new. Never been tried on anyone else. Loki day there, bound to a chair, looking up into the gallery above him. It held fans with tickets, and was based on a system that most of the Asgardians had never heard of, reserved only for the very rich. The top bidders were allowed to watch the tortures. The extremely wealthy had predominated here, outbidding each other until they had nearly broken the ticket auction system by driving the prices up so high. Every one of them wanted to see the hated prince in immeasurable pain. This time they were watching as he was slowly being poisoned, brought to the very brink of death._

 _The injections came slowly, but the pain didn't. Asgardian adder venom was deadly even to a god, but in small, controlled amounts, it could be used to inflict terrible pain. He was warm, so warm that beads of sweat dripped down his nose, mingled with salty tears that he could no longer repress. It was getting hard to breathe, the chains only making it worse. His chest hurt like he was being crushed to death, sharp pains stabbing into his stomach as the toxins took over. "Please, no more," he whispered in a guttural voice. "Please, stop."_

" _Another!" cheered the crowd above him. They had been swept up in the fervor of the torturers, ready to see more. "More!"_

" _No, please don't. Please." It was horribly shaming, an Asgaridan prince being forced to beg in front of all of them. But it was the only hope he had._

 _He looked up into the blinding lights of the room, trying to make out the faces of the people cheering above him. It was dizzying, staring into the lights and seeing how much they all hated him. The last thing he remembered before he blacked out was a man approaching with another full syringe._

 _Almost as soon as he came to, he was thrown back into his cell, having been forced to march upstairs even though he could barely stand. Mercifully, he was allowed to lay down, still feeling the effects of the venom coursing through his veins. Everything hurt, like he had been run through a washing machine full of rocks._

* * *

 _Laurel lay in bed, dozing with a tremendous headache. She had overextended herself trying to do complex Asgardian magic, and now was paying the price for it. It was so peaceful there, with just a few glowing lights floating above them. Loki ran a hand through her hair, willing her to feel better. In that moment, the two of them were the only things that mattered. "Loki?" she mumbled, only halfway awake._

" _Hmm?"_

" _Please don't go."_

" _I wouldn't dream of it."_

" _Stay here tonight. Please."_

" _I will."_

 _She rolled over, facing where he sat. Sleepily throwing an arm over his stomach, she settled in again, dozing off within seconds. Loki just sat up watching her, thinking of how he wished he could do more for her and how he didn't want to ever move from that spot._

* * *

 _Not a fan of lightning, not at all. And certainly not what came after. It wasn't real lightning, of course, but the bright flash signaled the pain that was to come. The jolt of electricity coursing through his chains sent him to his knees, much to the the delight of the crowd._

 _It was the culmination of so much that they loved and hated about him. They got to watch the traitorous prince in pain, but they also got to celebrate the symbol of their other, far-more treasured prince, the one who would one day be king. The fake lightning effects just reinforced the idea of Thor's power over him. Of course, his brother had nothing to do with this. He would have objected, had he actually been on Asgard. "Why couldn't you have been like your brother?" one of his tormentors asked, coming over to tighten his chains before another shock. Loki couldn't reply, having been gagged when he couldn't help but scream in pain. "You're going to be forgotten, written out of history down here while he's going to rule Asgard. You could have been second in command, but look where your ambition landed you."_

 _The woman stepped back, nodding to someone Loki couldn't see. "That's enough," he tried to say, even though the words couldn't come out any clearer than a "mmph." A switch was flipped, and then there was a bright flash of light. A second's pause, and his entire body was lit up, every nerve on fire. It felt like lava was coursing through his body, every atom being driven apart and dared to explode. All he could do was bite down on the cloth he had been gagged with, begging for it to stop._

 _That night he had looked at his wrists to see bubbling blisters where he had been burned. They would go away with time, but if he was chained up again any time soon, it would be even worse. They knew that, of course. And they would use it against him, like they used everything._

* * *

 _Blood. Too much blood, all over the floor. Desperately trying to keep her wound magically closed, Loki had dropped down to sit next to Laurel, leaning her against the wall as Steve called for help. "Please don't die," he whispered, Laurel trying to focus on him._

" _It's so dark -"_

" _Just look at me. Look at me, it's going to be alright," he promised, fully doubting himself._

" _I'll try my best."_

 _Natasha and Pepper rushed her away, leaving Loki and Steve in the hall as they started pulling fabric out of her wounds and getting her cleaned up. The patches would hold for now, but he had a lot of complex surgery to do later. All he could do was clean the blood off of himself and pace in front of her door for the time being, though. Rogers was in the way, pacing with him. Neither of them said a word to each other, just trying to calm their nerves as they waited._

 _An eternity later, he was allowed inside. Laurel lay on the kitchen table in her pajamas, her wounds washed off and now glowing with magic. "Can you do this?" Natasha asked, looking to him._

" _I'll do everything I can."_

 _He sat down to work, slowly lifting most of the magical bandages to assess the damage. It was even worse than he had thought. Slowly, he began to sew layers of tissue back together, re-binding organs and keeping the blood flow to the area stopped while still keeping it alive. The magical surgery would take hours._

 _People came in and out of the room to check on her, asking questions and searching for updates. He mumbled answers, completely focused on the task before him. Summoning all of his training from his mother, he was putting her back together, but by bit. Rogers stayed here almost the entire time, pacing in and out of Laurel's tiny kitchen and talking to the others over his comms unit. Loki tuned him out, paying attention only to Laurel. At one point, he could have sworn that she stood next to him, her hand on his shoulder as he worked. But that was impossible. Her astral form was probably doing it's best just to keep her alive. There was no time to go exploring._

 _Several hours later, Rogers helped him carry her to bed. "I'll stay here," Loki offered. "Go rest. I need to be here."_

 _It was his turn to pace the room, after having sat down for so long. But it wasn't his legs that needed stretching. Instead, he had to work out the nerves that had been building up for ages now. He had pushed all emotion aside, growing cold as he focused on the work that he was doing, focusing solely on keeping her alive. Up and down the room he walked, not daring to even go as far as the dining room. He had to keep walking to avoid breaking down, to avoid a flood of emotions that he had been repressing for so long._

 _He wouldn't rest until she had woken up, no matter who came to relieve him. Everyone stopped by before they went to sleep, Thor staying for the longest. Is brother meant well, but all he could think of was pacing around the room. Thor went to get a drink, Loki walking over to where Laurel was still asleep. He ran his fingers over her hand, whispering, "Please wake up. Please. I need to know this worked. I need to know -"_

" _Loki?" Thor had returned, looking quizzically at his brother. "She's going to be alright."_

* * *

 _He would never get used to the cheering of the crowd as their prince was subjected to some of the worst tortures known in the Nine Realms. As one of the torturers threw a chalice full of salt water onto his wounds, he could feel the burning of exposed skin, the pain bordering on overwhelming. "Shall we have some more?"_

 _The crowd screamed, their bloodlust clearly not satisfied yet. They wanted more,. They wanted to see him in pain, they wanted to hear the horrible screaming of the prisoner they regarded as less than Asgardian. Less than even a Jotun._

 _It was in that moment that he realized that he would be here for the next few thousand years, unless his brother took the throne and put a stop to this. For now, Thor and Frigga could do nothing. They knew so little about it at all. They knew he wasn't treated like a prince in the dungeons, but they knew nothing of this. They would never know any of this, not until they were in a position to put a stop to it. Even Odin didn't know how crafty his team of torturers had become._

 _In that moment, he realized how hopeless it was. How, every few days, he would be brought back for a new round of whatever they had thought of. He was a traitor, a war criminal, someone deserving of punishment. Slowly, very slowly, he began to believe it. This was reality now. This was what he had. And this was what he had to deal with, day in and day out, for the next couple thousand years._

* * *

 _Laurel had just left the rooftop, exhausted by hours of practicing magic. She'd said goodnight, kissing his cheek before disappearing down the stairs. Loki got up from his usual spot, walking the length of the roof. He was trying to work out something he had been trying to bring up for a while, but he just couldn't. He supposed he could ask Thor for advice, but it was simply not something they talked about. They just didn't._

 _He took a deep breath, conjuring a ghostly image of her. It stood there, glowling a slight gold as he walked. She smiled at him, Loki stopping in front of her. "Laurel, there's something I have to tell you… no, that's no good. Laurel, can we talk? No, that'll worry her too much." He walked to the edge of the roof, the shimmering image of her hovering in its spot. "Laurel, I don't know how to say this, but…"_

 _He turned back around, vanishing the figure. It only made it worse, having a version of her standing there, staring at him expectantly. Looking out over the rest of the facility, he shook his head. Maybe Rogers would know? She was fairly close to him. He would know how to tell her. No, better not get anyone else involved. Just do it. You'll just know. You've got to know. What if…? No, you know she thinks the same thing. You just have to say it._

 _Loki bit his lip, crossing the roof one more time. "Laurel, I love you."_

* * *

Laurel, the real Laurel, leaned against him, her chest heaving as she sobbed. She had seen all of that and more so quickly, absorbing all of it just as he had experienced it. "I didn't mean for you to see that," he whispered, letting her cry. He waited a few minutes before proposing, "Let's go inside. We can talk in there."

"Okay," she managed to say, Loki helping her stand. She nearly collapsed onto him, but grabbed his hand resolutely as she tried not to cry, even if it was just for the length of the journey downstairs.

Loki brought her to his quarters, since, "They're closer, and besides, you don't want Steve Rogers to hear you crying." He let her sit down in bed, going to make more tea. When he returned, he saw that she had conjured a box of tissues and was crying again. He set their mugs down, immediately joining her, wrapping his arms around her shaking figure.

"That's what the nightmares are," Laurel croaked, leaning into him and trying to dry her eyes. She failed miserably, beginning to cry almost as soon as she wiped at her cheeks. "I never thought…"

"That's not all you saw, though. You saw some of the good things," he reminded her. "I know it's a lot at once. It was a lot in the moment. But I promise you, I'm much happier here. And you help with the nightmares."

"But still… you went through all of that…" she sniffled, reaching across him for another tissue. "You had to deal with them… with them thinking you were the worst person in all of Asgard. There's good in you, Loki. There always has been. But they were so blinded by…"

"It's alright." He kissed the top of her head, feeling her sobs gradually slowing down.

"How did they not scar you?" she asked, sitting up and taking a drink.

"They did. I just choose to cover them, like I choose to cover my Jotun form." He sighed, standing up and unbuttoning his shirt. Turning his back to her, his let his skin slowly transform until the crisscross pattern of scars across his back was clearly visible.

Laurel reached out, tracing them lightly with her fingers. "It must have felt horrible. It did feel horrible. I saw… I'm so sorry. You know I didn't mean to see it all, the spell got away from me and… I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that. I wish I could fix it all," she sighed, standing up to hug him. Resting her forehead on his shoulder, she added, "I wish I could at least make the memories less awful."

"You already do," he promised.

They stayed up for a while longer, Laurel finally falling asleep next to him, her eyes still red from crying. She at least felt a little better. Loki was up longer than she was, holding her close to him. She really did help, even if it was just a ray of light in the overwhelming darkness sometimes. As he looked down at her sleeping peacefully, he realized something. This was the woman he wanted to marry. For sure. If she could cast a light into the darkness, if she could help him fight the demons that plagued him when he sat and thought for too long, it was her. This Midgardian woman had showed up in his life and changed so much. He had once berated Thor for letting a Midgardian woman change him, but now, he would have it no other way.


	20. Valhalla

_Loki never thought he would be visiting Stephen Strange, but he needed the help of a powerful sorcerer. A powerful Master of the Mystic Arts who wasn't Laurel. It wasn't every day that he was able to admit when he needed help. But it also wasn't every day that he opened a portal directly to Valhalla. So he arrived on Bleeker Street, knocking on the door to the Sanctum that he had only heard about from Laurel's stories. He was pulled inside moments later, Strange asking why he had dared to show up on his doorstep. "'Morning," Loki smiled, as if the man in front of him had never thrown him into another dimension, as if they weren't at odds with each other._

 _Crossing his arms, Strange regarded him suspiciously, thinking of the trouble that Loki had caused, of the threat he posed even now. "You're a danger to this universe, and you're showing up on my doorstep."_

" _I need to ask a favor."_

" _A favor?" Strange looked him over, wondering what sort of scheme the trickster god was concocting. Deciding that he could contain the threat, whatever it was, he agreed to at least hear him out. "Now I'm intrigued. I'm listening."_

 _It took a little while for Loki to lay out his plan, but with the help of some careful flattery and suggestion, he was able to convince Strange to help him. He really didn't want to have Strange be the one to help him, but Midgard was greatly lacking in powerful sorcerers. Besides, Strange had moved on, and so had Laurel. They had started to set aside their differences and work together more and more. Laurel had even started dropping by to teach the next class of trainees the magic that she had long since mastered. Loki hadn't talked to him nearly as much as Laurel did, but he knew that Laurel had talked about him in front of Strange, teaching his students things that he had taught her on the library roof. Strange wouldn't see him as a total threat, thanks to Laurel and her stories about him. She had a way of convincing people of things even when she wasn't reaching into their minds, something that Loki admired. He was the one with a true silver tongue, but she was fairly talented as well._

" _You won't have all day," Strange warned as they worked, slowly opening a portal in the middle of the Sanctum's entryway. It glowed an odd color, the sparks reflecting the world he was about to enter, a world that was completely different from the rest of the Nine Realms, completely removed from it but completely of it at the same time. "It's extremely unstable, but I can probably give you a safe couple of hours. Good luck."_

 _Loki nodded, stepping through the portal as soon as it was big enough to fit through. He had stepped right into a golden hallway, two people turning to look at him in surprise. "Loki?" the woman asked, coming to meet him as a smile broke on her face. "Oh, Loki, dear, it's so nice to see you. Why are you here, love? Please don't tell me -" She paused, noticing the portal behind him. "Oh."_

" _Mother, Father," he greeted them, Odin joining the two of them. He didn't have any time for flattery or small talk, so he got right to the point. There was no use burying the lead. "I've come to ask for your blessing to get married."_

" _Married? To that Midgardian woman?" Odin asked, immediately crossing his arms. Frigga, on the other hand, was beaming already, excited for her son. "We've been keeping an eye on her from here. Do you really love this woman?"_

" _Yes," Loki responded, almost before the question had left his father's lips. "She knows who I am. What I am. She knows what I've done, and she accepts it anyway. She's not afraid of me. With her… I belong with her. I feel like I belong with her, more than I've felt like I've belonged anywhere. I want to spend my life with her, but I have to ask for your blessing." He couldn't stop the words from flowing, not now, not when he had so much to say but so little time to say it in._

" _She is a Midgardian," Odin pressed, trying to stress what that would mean. "She is not of our realm."_

" _And I am a Jotun," Loki objected, sure that he knew exactly what Odin was referring to. "She is no more wanted on the throne than I am."_

 _Frigga smiled brightly, reaching out for her son. Her ghostly figure was strangely solid, at least more solid than the projections of herself that she would send to speak with him in the dungeons, back when he had been held there. "What your father means is that she will inevitably join us much sooner than you."_

 _Loki took a deep breath before bringing up his second request. "I know there is a way to extend her life. To allow her to live as long as I do. I've read about it, even though I've never actually heard of it being done. I know it is possible. Even if it means extending her a goddessship -"_

" _What does your brother think of all of this? Being the Crown Prince, you must also receive the blessing of the reigning King of Asgard before you can marry this woman," Odin interrupted, talking of practical matters even now. Loki scowled, thinking of how Thor always got to have a say in everything, even this. "Your brother should be the first one to know. Besides your mother and I, of course."_

" _Thor would agree. They are good friends, and I'm sure he would agree that she loves me dearly. He was quite the fan of the two of us, even in the beginning. If you've seen her, you must have seen him with her. In battle, back at home, on Asgard, you must have seen the two of them together. They already treat each other like family."_

 _Hsi adoptive father nodded, telling him to, "Give us a moment, son." Odin turned to where his wife stood, talking with her as if Loki couldn't hear him at all._

" _Alright."_

 _He could hear some of their hushed discussion as he waited, looking around at the halls of Valhalla. It was new to him, a place he had never explored before. Not many people ever traveled there and returned to tell anyone about it. There were legends, of course, but very few people ever tried to venture there, and even fewer actually made it. The halls looked like they had been based off of the old Asgardian palace, stretched out even further to fit more people, all of the bravest warriors of Asgard coming to rest there. Wishing he had time to explore some more, Loki focused on the conversation, trying his best to listen in. "If Loki changes his mind, we've doomed a very mortal woman to living for millenia."_

" _I know, but he really does love her. He is desperately in love. I can tell," Frigga was whispering. At least she was trying to keep her voice down. "I know it when I see it. I am the goddess of love and marriage, after all."_

" _Loki is tempermental," Odin frowned, crossing his arms. "You have seen him. He is not the kind of family man that I raised Thor to be. He could very easily change his mind, no matter how in love he may seem at the moment."_

" _He loves her, dear," Frigga pressed. "You have seen her, you have studied her life from the moment she became important to him. She understands a lot more about him than most. She has been through a lot, just like he has. You saw… you have seen how she came from that little Midgardian country, how she turned her entire life around, how she is trying to atone for what she's done. She loves him dearly, and she is fiercely loyal. And he loves her. You have seen it, so many times. I showed you how he reacted when she was close to death, did I not? I showed you how much it pained him, how much it tore at his heart to see her like that, to have so much fear of losing her. After everything our son has been through, what good reason would you have for denying him this one happiness?"_

 _Odin sighed, admitting that she was right. "Even if we do allow it, however, she would have to be made a goddess in order to live with him, to live as long as he does."_

" _Then we make her the goddess of loyalty, of fidelity. It is only a small piece of my domain, and I would be more than willing to share it with her," Frigga proposed, looking back to where Loki stood, posed as if he was not listening to them at all. "A minor goddess, but it would be enough to alter her Midgardian lifespan. It is more than possible."_

" _That is all conditional on her saying yes," Odin brought up. His frown had softened, but he still seemed to have his doubts. "If she says yes to the proposal, she will still have to say yes to living as long as he does. We could certainly do it, but she would also have to agree. Taking that choice away from her without her approval would simply be cruel."_

 _Frigga, however, had no doubts about Laurel at all. She had long watched her potential daughter-in-law from Valhalla, observing how she was striving to make up for the wrongs she had committed in Sokovia. She had been taken with the girl from the beginning, especially after seeing how much she helped Loki, and how devoted to her that he was. "I have faith that she will make the right choice. Even if she does not agree to live as long as he does, we should not deny him this happiness, be it a short one."_

" _A Midgardian woman," Odin shook his head, still in awe of what his son was proposing. "A Midgardian woman, of all things. He always was a bit of an odd one." Noticing how his wife had pursed her lips in disapproval, he added, "Not that that is a bad thing, of course."_

" _I also think it is important to consider the fact that, even if you do not give him your blessing, he will propose it to her anyway. I know my son, and he will go after what he wants, rules permitting or not," Frigga brought up._

 _Odin sighed, turning back to where Loki was intently looking at the designs carved into the walls. "If you can, without any trickery, convince her to marry you, you will have our blessing., She is a good woman, even if she is a Midgardian. If you can convince her to live with you for the rest of your natural life, we will also extend her a goddesship, allowing her to live with you. Inform your brother of your intentions, as you will need him to sign the marriage documents and give his blessing for a goddesship, as the current ruler of Asgard."_

" _Thank you," Loki nodded respectfully._

 _Frigga gave him a hug, twisting a ring from her finger and pressing it into his hand. "Take this with you. It has always brought your father and I luck, even when our marriage was tested. It is time for you to have the same joy."_

* * *

Loki replayed the trip to Valhalla in his mind over and over again on the library roof. He was waiting for Thor, who had gone off on a mission with the others. As soon as he got home, he would tell his brother about his plans, about visiting Valhalla, about how he needed his nod of approval but would go ahead with his plans even if he said otherwise. The waiting was agonizing. It seemed like Thor was taking forever. Where had they gone again? He twisted the ring his mother had given him in his hands, trying to figure out how he would broach the subject with Laurel. Maybe Thor would be able to help come up with ideas for that too.

The door to the library opened, Loki turning around quickly. Seeing that it was Laurel, and not his brother, he hastily stuck the ring back in his pocket. "How did it go?" he asked as Laurel sat down next to him.

She sighed, taking his hand. "I finally met the woman I had… worked on for so many years. I talked to her. I apologized so many times, but she said," Laurel pause, taking a deep breath, sounding like she was on the verge of tears, "she said she'd already forgiven me. She knew that I went into it because I was curious, and that I got too involved to I knew too much, and that they would sooner kill me than have me leave. She said she didn't blame me for leaving them in that facility when I finally did escape, that I was probably the only other person she could talk to who knew about her brother, who knew him anywhere close to as well as she did. He died, you know. He was killed in Sokovia a few years ago, when Tony's Ultron project went rogue. Pietro was always so nice, and Wanda… I can't believe she's forgiven me. Something like that, like what I've done, is hard to forgive." Remembering who she was talking to, she added, "I'm glad there are good people who can understand it, even when they feel so strongly."

"Brother?" The door swung open again, Thor coming outside rather loudly. "Forgive me for not answering your message earlier, but my phone - oh, hello again, Laurel."

"Hi."

"I'll leave the two of you for now," he said, reading the situation as one he shouldn't have interrupted. Excusing himself, he made his way back downstairs.

"What was that about?"

"Oh, I just had a question for him. Nothing terribly concerning," Loki lied, pulling her closer to him. "Nothing at all."


	21. A Modest Proposal

It was a perfectly clear night when Laurel and Loki met up on the rooftop, having hardly seen each other all day. Loki had kept to himself, while Laurel was busy training and setting up an obstacle course with Peter late into the evening. He had texted her earlier, telling her that he had something important to discuss and that she should meet him there right after she had eaten dinner. "Hey," Laurel smiled, coming over to kiss his cheek. "What's up? You look like you've been thinking."

Loki nodded as she sat down next to him. "I have. Laurel, do you enjoy spending time with me?"

Her stomach dropped as she realized what this meant. He had finally decided that it was too much to be with a Midgardian, too much trouble having someone so firmly on the side of good, even if it was because she was trying her best to make up for what she had done in the past. "Yes. Loki, why -"

"Do you love me?"

"Of course I love you." She reached out and took his hand, saying, "I love you more than you would ever believe. Loki, what is this all about?"

He firmly refused to meet her eye. "Do you love me even though I'm not -"

"Whatever it is, of course I do."

"Even though I can take the form of a Jotun, of a man, of a woman, of creatures you've never even dreamt of, even though I'm attracted to more than just... more than just Midgardian women like you, even though I'm nothing like what many of your people see as normal?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow. "Even when I'm terribly cold, when I'm as blue as the uniform you wear, when my eyes are redder than blood?"

"Yes. Loki, what is this all about?" she pressed, growing even more concerned. "What's wrong? Is there something you need to tell me?"

"I don't know how to say this. I never thought I would be saying this to anyone." His voice was flat and he could barely meet her eye even now, making Laurel worry even more. But he didn't give her an opportunity to ask what was making him so tense, a rush of words finally all coming out at once. "I've practiced saying this so many times, but I can never get it right. Then I realized that you wouldn't mind, because you've put up with so much of… so much of me being me. So I'll just say it." He let go of her hand, fishing the ring Frigga had given him out of his pocket.

Her fears were immediately erased as she stared at the ring in awe. It was old, she could tell. Incredibly old, but still beautiful, like it had been guarded in the vaults of Asgard for centuries. All she could think of was that it must have been his mother's. Where else would he have gotten something so beautiful? "Loki, are you -"

"I never thought I would meet someone who saw more than the monster, more than the villain that I am. That I was raised to be. I never thought I would meet someone so accepting, someone so," he sighed, shaking his head. "This whole prepared speech is ridiculous, now that I'm saying it. Laurel, I love you. You make me feel like I'm… enough. More than enough. Even though I'm a criminal, even though I'm hated throughout the Nine Realms… even though I'm blue, for Odin's sake. But none of that matters with you. I don't need to be a king or a god or some sort of all-powerful sorcerer in front of you. You've been nothing but kind to me, and I'm so incredibly grateful. Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

"Yes," she beamed, leaning in to kiss him. "Of course."

As she slipped the ring onto her finger, he bit his lip, forcing himself to bring up the thought that he had been struggling with for a while. "You must remember, love, that I will live much longer than any Midgardian. Even a hundred years… What's a hundred years in Asgardian time? In Jotun time? It's the blink of an eye. It's a heartbeat. Which I why I've asked the Allfather for something else too. It took a bit of convincing, but if you agree, he can make you a goddess. You would be able to live with me for the rest of my life." Laurel sat back, reality hitting her again. Really, a hundred years - her entire lifetime, if she was lucky - was nearly nothing to him."Of course, you don't have to. We could enjoy our years together, no matter how many we have."

"It's not fair," she sighed, twisting the ring on her finger. "It's not fair to have you marry me if I only live for a few years of your time. It's not fair for me to make you live through that, to go on after..."

"It also isn't fair to ask you to outlive everyone you love," he replied, reaching for her hand to get her to stop fiddling with the ring and focus. "Think about it. I don't need an answer tonight. I shouldn't pressure you to make up your mind on something so important."

"It's not fair either way," she summed up, looking to him sadly. "No matter what, I will marry you, though. I would hate to deprive myself of that."

As they lay in bed that night, Laurel couldn't help but think about what all of this would mean. They would certainly go find somewhere to live that wasn't with all of the others. She would have to convince Steve and Tony to let Loki out of the facility for once. She would be with him, after all. He would have supervision. _Supervision. Loki won't be the only one who requires adult supervision, not if you get married and..._ "Loki?"

"Hmm?" He set down the book he had been reading, pushing his hair out of his eyes and turning to look at her.

Laurel had been curled up with her laptop, already deep into wedding planning, when she thought of something. "If we have kids, how long would they live? Half Jotun and half Midgardian… They would have to live longer than me, I'm sure. Not as long as you, but… wait, would they be blue?" she asked with a bit of a smile.

Even though he had never been fond of his Jotun form, Loki couldn't help but smile at the thought. "Mayhaps they would be… Laurel, I don't think we should have children."

"Why not?" Setting her laptop aside, she sat up to be able to face him.

Loki frowned, reaching for her hand. She hadn't taken her ring off, even now that they were getting ready for bed. He highly doubted that she would ever take it off. "I'd make a horrible father. I killed my own father, and I had a hand in Odin's death. I… I even caused my mother's death, inadvertently, of course. I didn't mean to, but… I helped guide the men who killed her… I sent them right to her, and I didn't know it. I have no idea how to be a father. I've never had a good one, and I'm just... me. You know how I am. No matter what I do, I know I'll mess it up."

"No," Laurel shook her head, saying, "no matter what, you'll be a better father than either of yours. You'll be better than both of them combined. You could be a wonderful father, when the time comes. If we decide to, of course. But that's not important now, that's something to think about in a few years or so. We've got time. I was just wondering because I saw a picture of the cutest flower girl dresses and thought... We've got to have everything in green and gold, right?"

"Whatever you want," he said, leaning forward to kiss her cheek. "Whatever you want, we can have. Actually, there is one thing…"

"What is it?"

"Do you know what a handfasting ceremony is?" Laurel shook her head, Loki holding her hand up and explaining, "We hold our hands up like this, and they're wrapped together with a ribbon. They say a few words, and we're married. We can have it as just a part of the wedding ceremony. It's an old Norse practice, one they had on Asgard too. "

"I think it sounds nice," Laurel smiled. "Let's have one."

Loki kissed her hand, telling her that he was glad she liked the idea. The two of them sat up for a while longer, Laurel scrolling through wedding planning websites while Loki read. Loki, though, couldn't focus. All he could think of was her, of how badly he wanted to live with her for the rest of his life. _It isn't your choice. She gets to choose. It's her life, her life as she knows it that she would be leaving behind. If she doesn't, though… she would only be a part of your life, but you would still be all of hers. You can't be disappointed. You can't let her know if you are._

 _But I want her here for the rest of my life. I want to sit here at night with her, to wake up next to her, I want to stay with her. I want her to stay. Please, Laurel, stay. I need you to stay with me._

"We should probably pick a season," Laurel brought up, saying it more to remind herself than to ask him an actual question. _Do you want to stay with him? You love him. He loves you. But thousands of years?_ "And people to fill in the roles. Tomorrow, though, when we tell them." _What will we tell them? They'll all want to know. Thor's going to be his best man, I'm sure._ _Thor would still be here with us, after all of that time. But I'd lose everyone else. Steve. You'd be leaving Steve behind. Steve, who you've spent so much time talking with and cooking with, who's always around with a hug and a cup of tea when you need it. And Nat, you'd lose Nat and her fiery passion on every mission. You'd lose Tony and his jokes. Bruce would be gone too, Bruce and his quiet humor, his brilliant inventions that he could explain so well that even I can understand them. And Peter, the little brother you never got to have. All of them would be gone._

 _Do you really love him that much? Of course. Why do you do what you do? Why do you follow him and care for him and remind him that he matters? It's because of that longing, that terrible longing, the ache that you feel in your chest because you want to be near him. It's because he can make you smile like no one else can, because he's like no one else. Because you miss him so much when you're off on a mission, because you see how he worries about you. Because he feels like home, even when you two are thousands of miles apart. Because he's the one you want to come back to._

As she did her research, all Laurel could focus on was the debate that was tearing her apart. On one hand, she didn't want to give up her life, to give up the people she treasured so much, to watch them all die before she did. On the other hand, though, she wanted to spend Loki's life with him. Living out her short life, living for such a little while compared to how long he would live, seemed so unfair to him. But she hated having to sacrifice everyone, knowing that all of her friends, aside from Thor, wouldn't be there for the vast majority of her life if she chose to extend it. Thor and Loki weren't technically immortal, but they were close to it.

Closing her laptop, Laurel got up and put it back on its charger. Loki continued reading as she got ready for bed. Eventually, she climbed back into bed with him, laying her head in his lap so she could read some of his book too. Absentmindedly, he ran a hand through her hair, smiling to himself at the fact that she still hadn't taken her ring off. "Loki?"

"Yes, love?" He set his book aside, looking down to where Laurel lay.

"How long would it be? The rest of our lives?"

Biting his lip, he answered honestly, despite how badly he wanted her to agree. "Four thousand years, give or take."

"Four thousand years," Laurel repeated, trailing off. "Four thousand years…"

"You don't have to decide tonight."

"I'll do it."

* * *

A.N.: I may or may not have another chapter to post tomorrow, since I'm going to a convention (cosplaying Loki, of course!) and I'm sure I'll be home late and exhausted. But I hope you enjoyed this cuteness before the horrors of Infinity War are upon us.


	22. Thanos

A.N.: I know I said there wasn't gonna be a chapter today bc I was going to a convention, but... I figured I'd bless you with one anyway before I go to sleep. I spent my day dressed as Loki taking photos with people and watching panels. Hope y'all enjoy!

* * *

Thanos. It was a name that Laurel had heard a lot, seen in the documents and the references she had pored over when she was learning about the Avengers, their allies, and their facilities. They had mentioned him in passing, but rarely, if ever, discussed him for very long. But now, he seemed to pose an even bigger threat. He was getting closer and growing more and more powerful every day as he drew more followers.

"Reports have it he's trying to gather Infinity Stones. He's shown that he'll do anything to get them," Steve had told her over dinner. Having to stick around for a meeting with ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel and Stephen Strange, the two of them were the only ones left at home while the others were out on a mission. Loki, of course, stayed with them, but only emerged from the library as they were putting food on the table. He had said nothing as the other two talked, until Steve had turned to him to say, "Congratulations, by the way."

"Congratulations?"

"On your engagement," Steve clarified, helping himself to another piece of lasagna. "Laurel told me this morning, along with everyone else, before they went out. Congratulations."

"Thank you," Loki offered, going back to his dinner.

After they had eaten and cleared everything up, Steve went to work on putting together a workout program for Peter. Laurel went to the library, hunting down a book on the Infinity Stones to learn as much as she could about them. Well, it was more of a book that contained a small section on the Infinity Stones, the only thing that had been written on them in the entire library. It was ancient, a book that had been collected forever ago by someone amassing anything and everything they could about the Mystic Arts. Stephen had given it to her long ago, though she had never had a chance to read it until now.

Loki wasn't in the library when she got there, Laurel shrugging his absence off and hunting down the book from the shelves. She went back to her spot, draping her legs over the side of the chair, perching her glasses on the top of her head, and cracking the book open in the peaceful silence. There had been notes made in the margins and in between the lines, notes in different handwriting styles that changed or added to a lot of the book. Flipping to the section on the Infinity Stones, she began to read, concentrating deeply.

 _The Infinity Stones are six immensely powerful stones, tied to aspects that form the core of the universe itself. Before creation, there were six singularities, which, when the universe came into existence, created these six stones. Only those of great power, such as the Titans or Celestials, who once used the stones as weapons, can directly wield the stones, for good or for evil. Others would risk death if they tried. Deaths have been reported among those who have touched the stones without protection, let alone tried to wield them. Containing the stones inside of another vessel can reduce this risk, but the stones remain unstable at best._

 _The Space Stone is contained within an object known as the Tesseract. It is capable of controlling space itself, allowing those who wield it complete access to any point in space. Bringing together or driving apart points in space becomes easy for those capable of wielding this stone. Changing hands from Odin of Asgard, to a keeper in Norway, to H.Y.D.R.A., to the Stark family, to S.H.I.E.L.D., and then back to Asgard, the Space Stone offers those who wield it ultimate control over any point in the universe. [Additional: see 'Odin', 'Keeper', 'H.Y.D.R.A.', 'Stark' and 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' files]._

 _The Mind Stone is contained inside a scepter [added correction: see files on 'Vision' and 'Stark Industries']. It grants the wielder powerful mental abilities, such as projecting one's consciousness or bending the will of others. Its powers have also been shown to cover telekinetic abilities, telepathy, and energy projection, included in a series of experiments in the Eastern European country of Sokovia. [Additional: see 'Maximoff', 'Sokovia' and 'Loki' files]._

 _The Reality Stone began as a liquid, known as the Aether, but was solidified into the Reality Stone by Thor. The Reality Stone has the ability to warp reality at will. This includes giving the wielder great strength, stamina, and influence over the universe as a whole. It is possible, in its liquid form, to have a living host for the Reality Stone, although it is uncommon and extremely dangerous.[Additional: see file on 'Thor Odinson', re. Jane Foster]._

 _The Power Stone allows the user to manipulate energy fields and, at full power, can be used to obliterate entire planets. While this ability is rare, those who have wielded Infinity Stones before or are extremely skilled can unleash the power to eliminate entire planets. The Power Stone can alternatively be used to power entire planets, offering hope that it is not only able to be used for its destructive power. [Additional: see 'Peter Quill' and 'Guardians' files]._

 _The Time Stone is contained within an ancient pendant created by Agamotto, a Master of the Mystic Arts and the first Sorcerer Supreme. With the necessary knowledge and skills, the stone is able to control the flow of time in order to slow, accelerate, or loop time. Extremely skilled sorcerers can, at least in part, remove themselves from the effects of the Time Stone. In the writings of many Masters of the Mystic Arts, the use of the Time Stone is both dangerous and contrary to the natural order of time and space. [Additional; see files on 'Agamotto', 'Kamar-Taj' and 'Stephen Strange']._

 _The Soul Stone remains a mystery. It is considered the most dangerous and potentially powerful of all of the Infinity Stones, but its location is not known. Knowledge of its powers are similarly limited, but it is believed that the Soul Stone can control the fabric of one's soul, affecting the cycle of life and death, from immortality to attacking the astral forms of others. This stone seems to have something like its own soul, extracting a price for it's wielding and cursing some to be its keeper in an unknown location._

 _It is well known that, if used in combination, the stones are more powerful than if wielded on their own. Together, the stones would have almost infinite potential for damage. This is so much of a concern that even the Asgardians, keepers of multiple stones at times, did not store them together, despite the strength of their vaults. These stones must be protected and respected in order to preserve harmony in the universe._

Laurel set down her book when Loki came in, a book tucked under his arm as he carried cups of tea for both of them. "Hey," she smiled as he handed her one. "Thanks. You're already a great fiance."

Laughing a bit, he sat down and asked, "How much did Rogers tell you about the Infinity Stones? About Thanos?"

"Not a whole lot. I've done some reading on them," she held up the book for emphasis, "and on him. He's dangerous even without them, but if he wants to start collecting stones… we might have a problem on our hands."

"When I fell from Asgard, I wound up in a place called the Sanctuary. It was his planet. Not quite a planet, but it was his domain in the asteroid field that housed the Chitauri. Thanos offered me a deal. Clearly, it did not go as planned, but in theory, I could rule Midgard if I brought him something that was in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession. The Tesseract," Loki explained, leaning towards her in his chair.

"The Space Stone."

Loki nodded. "The Tesseract contains the Space Stone. The scepter Thanos gave me in order to corral an invasion of Midgard contained the Mind Stone, which was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. and then smuggled out to Sokovia before being implanted into Vision, who's since gone into hiding."

"I know all about Sokovia," Laurel sighed, reaching for her cup of tea. "I never got to see the stone itself, but I saw what it did to the Maximoffs. It changed them. It changed their minds, like it changed their abilities. Wanda especially. It made her… darker, more focused. Angrier. I told them to stop using it on them, but they wouldn't, even when I told them that it was inevitably going to hurt them. They tortured them with it. They pushed them until their minds and their bodies gave out, and then made them keep going. If that's what can happen with one stone, I can't imagine what would happen if Thanos collected all of them."

Seeing how much the memory bothered her, Loki got up to give her a hug. "The Infinity Stones are spread all over the universe, and are very well-guarded. I wouldn't expect many problems protecting them. As long as Strange has the Time Stone, we can always wind things back to retrieve them and hide them again."

"He let me use it a few times," Laurel confided. "Just for a moment or two, I could wind time back, I could turn it into loops. Playing with time makes you feel so powerful. I'm sure it was the same feeling when you had the Mind Stone."

"It was." He kissed the top of her head as he admitted, "It was intoxicating. I can see why he wants all of them. Just imagine, power over life and death, over time, thought, free will, reality… infinite power over the entire universe and everything in it. You would be more powerful than anything or anyone else in existence. It would be more than being a god, much more."

"I can see why a lot of people would want all of them," Laurel said, her voice rather pointed. "Becoming the most powerful being in the universe is something a lot of people would want."

Loki sighed, deciding to tell her what had been bothering him since they got word of Thanos' rise. "When he gave me the scepter, when he sent me to find the Tesseract, he never thought the Avengers would come together. It was an extremely unexpected circumstance, but he did tell me… something along the lines of 'there is nowhere you can hide from me if you fail', and that I would meet a very painful end if I tried backing out on our deal. Since the Avengers interrupted the whole process, I've been running."

"Then we'll keep you safe," she promised. "I'll kill him myself if I have to."

Hours later, the two of them lay in bed. Laurel was sleeping peacefully when Loki bolted upright, having dreamt of Thanos and his threats, chasing him across the universe to hunt him down and punish him for his failures. Looking around in the darkness, he remembered where he was. He tossed an orb of light into the air as he tried to slow his breathing, realizing that there was no need to panic.

"Loki?' Laurel mumbled, rolling over to avoid the light. She had gotten used to him doing this, throwing small lights into the air when he woke up from a rather bad dream. "What's wrong?'

"Nothing. Go back to sleep," he whispered, dimming the light and laying back down. He pulled her a bit closer, keeping his arm over her as he thought of her vow to kill Thanos if he ever came after them. It was a nice gesture, but he knew that Thanos could easily kill her too. Closing his eyes again, he hoped that the Avengers' worries about Thanos were unfounded, that he wasn't starting to move to collect the Infinity Stones. It was wishful thinking. But deep down, he had a feeling that they were going to have to face him sooner rather than later.


	23. The Statesman

Thor arrived late one night in the library, Loki and Laurel setting down their books and looking up at the disturbance. Laurel put her glasses back on, finally being able to identify the blond mass that appeared before them. "New Asgard is becoming more and more unstable. I think we need to move the people to Earth."

"Now?" Loki asked quizzically. "How long do they have? I'm busy."

"Now," his brother confirmed. "The asteroid it's on is falling out of its orbit, according to Dr. Banner. He's been doing me the favor of keeping track of it, and he thinks it's moving faster than ever."

Bruce appeared in the library door as if he had been summoned. "I'm ready when you are."

"And as New Asgard's Crown Prince, you're expected to go." Laurel had put everything together, setting her book on the table in between their two chairs. "You have to help your brother lead his people."

Loki sighed, saying, "Very well. Let's head to the roof and we can open the portal from there. Laurel, I shouldn't be gone for long -"

"Oh, I'm coming with you," she insisted, getting up with him. Knowing that he couldn't really object, he let her follow their group up the stairs and onto the roof, where the two of them started to open a portal to New Asgard.

It was fairly easy opening the portal up, as they'd done it plenty of times before. But the scene they walked into was nothing like the splendor of the city that Laurel had seen months before. Instead, people were packing their things in a hurry, shoving what they could into bags and boxes or running for the ship that Loki had long since stolen from Sakaar. The asteroid itself was terribly unstable, seemingly falling more and more out of its orbit every minute. Earthquakes - well, what Laurel would have called 'earthquakes' back on Earth - shook the city every few minutes, forcing people to drop everything and hold on for dear life.

Magically projecting Thor's voice so he could be heard by all of New Asgard as they readied themselves to leave, Laurel stood back, watching the king leading his people. "We will be leaving as soon as possible, preferably within the next twenty minutes. Dr. Banner has advised that we leave quickly. We will be doing everything that we can to help speed up the process. Please head to the ship." He nodded to Laurel, who stopped the spell, reducing his voice to a normal range.

"I have to go oversee things onboard. They seem to be in desperate need of leadership over there," Loki told her, giving her a kiss before taking off in the direction of the ship.

Thor had already moved in the opposite direction. Laurel was about to follow him into the city when Valkyrie, as they had begun calling her, appeared at her elbow. "So I see you are going to become the next Princess of Asgard. Congratulations."

"Thank you," she smiled, turning to her companion. She twisted the ring on her finger, not totally used to wearing it. "I still don't know how I feel about being called 'Princess', but I guess it'll have to do. There's a lot that I'll have to get used to around here, I'm sure."

"Ah, you've lived with Loki for long enough, I'm sure you can roll with anything. By the way," she said as they walked towards the ship, watching people scramble aboard with their belongings tucked into sacks or in bags, "ah, shit." They were interrupted by another earthquake, ducking into the doorway of a nearby home until the shaking stopped. "It's been like this for a while now. It started out with small ones, with one or two a week. They weren't anything close to as bad as these, either. They just kept getting worse."

"There was no way to stabilize the asteroid? Even magically?" Laurel asked as they passed by a family making sure they had locked up their home. Even then, in the middle of all of the chaos and uncertainty, they had stopped to double check the locks on a home they would, in all likelihood, never come back to. "You've got a few trained sorcerers here, right?"

Valkyrie shook her head. "We tried. There was no way it could hold, not in the long run. We stabilized it as much as we could, but it's coming out of orbit. Our scientists were positive that we had only a little time left, and yours confirmed it."

They climbed onboard the ship, moving to where the captain's chair sat. Thor hadn't gotten there yet, but they found his lieutenants awaiting him. Loki stood over the group of Asgardians who had already gathered on the main deck, giving them instructions about moving in closer to fit more people and promising that they would find a new home in Midgard. As he caught sight of Laurel, he shushed the group. "Our soon-to-be princess." He gestured to where she stood, half-bowing as she tried to suppress a smile. "Come here, love."

"It's true," Laurel said, coming to stand on the platform next to him so she could look out over all of New Asgard. It was important to keep them calm as more and more people arrived, to keep them distracted. Everyone loved a good royal wedding. Especially on Asgard, where they were so very rare. She held up her left hand, showing them the ring Loki had given her. Beaming, she continued to speak. "It is an honor, really. The moment I set foot here, everyone was kind to me. Asgardians are some of the nicest people I have ever had the privilege of meeting, and I cannot wait to be a member of your royal family. You all have given me so much. You all have blessed me with one of the greatest things in my life." She looked to Loki for emphasis. "And I promise that I will always be here to help you in times like these."

The crowd began to applaud, more and more people arriving on the ship to whispers of "they're engaged" and "she's going to be the new princess". Finally, someone called out, "When's the wedding?"

"Some time after we get everything settled," Laurel promised, "and when New Asgard - oh, we'll have to call it New New Asgard by then, won't we? No, I think we'll just call it Asgard again. Well, after Asgard has been re-established on Earth, then we can get to wedding planning. There's a nice little spot in Norway that we're headed for, if any of you have studied Midgardian geography. We'll have a proper royal wedding there, when all is said and done."

The crowd turned to see their king arriving on the ship, everyone falling silent as they nodded in deference. Thor made his way through the crowd, climbing up to where Loki and Laurel stood. "We have secured everyone," he announced, "and we've begun closing the doors. We should be making our way to Midgard shortly."

It was a few hours later when Thor, Loki, and Laurel stood in a small observatory room, looking out on the open space sprawled in front of them. "It's amazing up here," Laurel marveled, watching as they moved past planets and moons. She couldn't help but stand near the glass, staring into the darkness in front of her. It wasn't every day that a normal human went into space.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to go back to Earth?" Loki looked to his brother, who was watching their slow progress towards their new home. He couldn't help but smile a bit at Laurel, who still stared out of the ship in childlike wonder.

Thor scoffed, saying, "Yes, of course. The people of Earth love me. I'm very popular."

With a sigh, Loki turned to him. "Let me rephrase that. Do you really think it's a good idea to bring me back to Earth?" Bringing the Asgardians to Earth would mean, in all likelihood, that more people would know that Loki had returned. He had done fairly well keeping a low profile, but this was fairly hard to miss.

"Probably not, to be honest. I wouldn't worry, brother. I feel like everything's going to work out fine."

"Umm…" The two of them turned to see what Laurel was staring at. A giant ship had materialized nearby, and was rapidly gaining on them. "Well shit. I don't think we're welcome here."

"Command posts," Thor told them, their trio sprinting down to where the others were still huddled.

"What's going on?" Valkyrie asked, running up to them as they emerged from the stairwell. She had spotted the ship too, and had alerted a few of the Asgardian warriors. "Who is that?"

"Whoever it is, they aren't friendly," Laurel told her, Thor's lieutenants gathering around them. "We should put up our defenses and prepare for an attack, just in case." She snapped her fingers, manifesting the battle gear that she had made sure to bring with. "I'm thinking they're not just welcoming us to this part of the universe."

Thor agreed. "Be prepared to send out a distress signal, in case something should happen."

"Your Majesty, we're being boarded." A messenger had run up from the other side of the ship, Thor taking a deep breath and looking between the others. Laurel activated the distress signal as they heard the first footsteps of the men boarding their ship.

"Kill them," came a command, a giant figure appearing in the middle of the crowd of Asgardians, People ran, but there was no hope. As Laurel summoned her weapons and the others reached for theirs, half of the Asgardians were already dead. They were no match for Thanos and his Black Order. Most of them were dead before they fully realized what was going on.

The lights were knocked out, activating the emergency power as people began running in every direction. Laurel and Loki exchanged a nod, splitting up as they hurled themselves into the fray. Within moments, they found themselves standing among a small group of survivors. Valkyrie had smuggled people out during the battle, so she was nowhere to be seen. Hopefully she was getting them into one of the escape pods below the deck of the ship. There had to be some survivors, or at least Laurel had to hope for some.

Thanos stepped forward in the blue light, removing his helmet with a terrible grin. Laurel could see how he inspired terror even among his followers. Aside from the fact that he was a Titan already, he proved to be a formidable enemy, a skilled fighter, and a merciless killer. "You may think this is suffering. No, this is salvation," one of Thanos' followers was saying as he moved through the bodies littering the floor of a ship meant to be the salvation of all of Asgard. "Universal scales tipped towards balance because of your sacrifice. Smile, for even in death, you have become children of Thanos."

Laurel shifted closer to Loki, noticing that they had been slightly separated from the others and were slowly being surrounded by members of Thanos' group. He stepped in front of her defensively, his hand creeping towards hers as he kept his eyes on the Titan. Laurel held onto him tightly, trying to keep her fingers from trembling. They were truly surrounded, standing in the middle of a massacre. If anyone was receiving their distress call, they hadn't responded yet. As she laced her fingers in with her fiance's, Laurel started to realize that they were truly alone out in space.


	24. The Sun Will Shine On Us Again

Clutching Loki's hand tightly, Laurel watched every move that Thanos made like a hawk. She had long since learned not to trust a word that he said, and now that he had destroyed half of the Asgardian ship, she knew that they all had to measure their words carefully if they wanted to get out alive. "I know what it's like to lose," Thanos was saying as he made his way through the wreckage of the ship, turning over bodies of the Asgardians that he had slaughtered. "To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless." He lunged out, grabbing Thor and taking all of them by surprise. "It's frightening. Turns the legs to jelly. I ask you… to what end? Dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here. Or should I say, I am.

Laurel's vice-like grip on Loki's hand didn't waver as they both watched, trying to suppress their fear. "You talk too much," Thor grunted, the others holding their breath.

Thanos turned to Loki, telling him, "The Tesseract, or your brother's head. I assume you have a preference." That was the moment when Laurel knew, deep down, that they were powerless, even now, even if Loki had a plan in mind. They were stranded in the middle of nowhere, sending out a distress signal that no one was replying to. There were only a few of them left, facing Thanos and his Black Order, a formidable fighting force all on their own. No one was coming to help them to fight. Laurel clutched Loki's hand for dear life, the only thing that gave her any sort of comfort. _Please don't do anything stupid. Loki, please._

"Oh, I do," Loki scoffed, Laurel staring at him in disbelief. "Kill away."

 _Now isn't the time to talk like that, Loki. Unless it's all part of your plan, in which case, it's got to be a pretty dumb plan._ Laurel glared at the back of his head, but still didn't let go of him, watching in horror as Thanos raised his hand to Thor's head, raw power coursing through him as Thor tried not to cry out.

"Alright, stop!" Loki called, Laurel taking a half-step closer to him.

"We don't have the Tesseract," Thor gasped, finally able to talk again. "It was destroyed on Asgard." Thanos looked to Loki, who dropped Laurel's hand for a split second, conjuring the Tesseract with an apologetic look. "You really are the worst, brother."

"I assure you, brother, the sun will shine on us again." He had to have a plan. It sounded like he had something set up. Laurel relaxed a bit, knowing that he had to be at least three steps ahead of Thanos and his Black Order.

"Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian," Thanos smiled, reaching out for the Tesseract.

"Well, for one thing, I'm not Asgardian. And for another... we have a Hulk," Loki grinned, holding the Tesseract back. The wall of the ship burst open, the Hulk ramming his way into the room towards Thanos.

"Bruce," Laurel whispered under her breath, "no…" Even then, she knew that it wouldn't be enough. Not up against a Titan armed with an Infinity Stone.

Thanos easily lifted him off of the ground, Laurel biting her lip and trying not to cry out as her friend was beaten and dropped onto the deck. "Forefathers," came a weak voice from the ground, "let the dark magic flow through me one last time." It was Heimdall, the guardian of the Bifrost Bridge in between the Nine Realms. He had been injured badly, badly enough that he knew he wasn't going to make it. But he reached out, conjuring the Bifrost one last time and sending the Hulk back to Earth.

"That was a mistake." Thanos took a step over, stabbing Heimdall with a spear he had grabbed from one of his Asgardian victims.

"No! You're going to die for that!" Thor couldn't help himself. He and Heimdall had been friends for hundreds of years, and now all he could do was stare as his friend was mercilessly killed in front of him.

Thanos took the Tesseract, Loki retracting a bit as he crushed it, revealing a glowing stone that he placed in his gauntlet with the other. Satisfied that he was now able to wield two Infinity Stones at once, he turned to his subordinates, commanding them to hunt down the rest. "There are two more stones on Earth. Find them, my children, and bring them to me on Titan."

Laurel was now hovering right next to Loki again, holding on to him as tightly as she could. "Please don't do anything stupid," she whispered, trying to keep her lips from moving. She was inches away from his ear, as close as she could get without it being obvious. "Please. I love you."

"Father, we will not fail you." The closest of them bowed in deference, Thanos nodding and sending him off.

"I love you," Loki whispered back, letting go of her hand and stepping forward. He had a plan. He must have had a plan. Laurel was silent as he spoke, hoping and praying that he hadn't misjudged the situation. "If I might interject… If you're going to Earth, you might want a guide. I do have a bit of experience in that arena."

Thanos regarded him coolly. "If you consider failure experience."

"I consider experience experience," Loki replied smoothly, stepping closer than ever to the Titan. Laurel had to bite her lip to prevent herself from crying out and telling him to stop. "Almighty Thanos, I, Loki, Prince of Asgard, Odinson, the rightful King of Jotunheim, God of mischief, hereby pledge to you my undying fidelity." He began to bow, lunging forward with a dagger drawn when he was sure that Thanos had relaxed a bit.

Thanos was too fast for him, though. He seized Loki by the neck, his dagger clattering to the ground as he was lifted off of his feet. "'Undying'? You should choose your words more carefully."

"No!" Laurel tried to run forward, only to be stopped by a force field that one of Thanos' Order had suspended her in. She couldn't do anything but watch as Loki choked, unable to do anything but concentrate on fighting to breathe. "No, please, don't -"

"You … will never be… a god," Loki choked out, Thanos smiling as a snapping sound echoed across the eerily silent room. Laurel couldn't speak over the knot in her throat as Thanos came over to where she and Thor had been suspended, trapped behind force fields and chains.

He dropped Loki's body in between them, remarking, "No resurrections this time."

"You monster," Laurel spat, trying everything she could to rush forward at him out of anger.

Thanos smiled at her before he snapped his fingers, transporting himself and he rest of his Order away and dropping the spells holding Laurel and Thor back.

They both rushed towards him, Laurel reaching the body first. He was still warm as she practically threw herself on top of him, holding him as closely as she could. "Please tell me this is some kind of magic trick. Loki? Loki, please… Loki…" Her voice grew softer as she finally let herself start sobbing. "I love you. I love you so much. Loki, I love you. Please... please don't be dead..."

"No… Loki... " Thor was holding on to both of them, Laurel feeling the pain in his voice.

She sat up, running a hand through her fiance's hair and attempting a healing spell, to no avail. "It can't be real. Wouldn't he… lose all of his magic? Why isn't he blue? Thor? Thor, please tell me this isn't real." Looking to him with pleading eyes, she asked again. "It has to be a trick, right? Loki, he's gone. You can come back now from wherever you are. Please, Loki…"

Thor couldn't say anything, trying to hold himself together. That was it. Frigga, Odin, all of Asgard, and now Loki. They were all gone. It was just the two of them left on the ship, stranded and alone in space. His heart broke not only for everyone that he had lost, but also for the woman sitting in front of him. His brother's fiancee, the woman who had to watch him die in front of her. "I feel like… it is," he choked, putting an arm around Laurel. She leaned into him, tears streaming down her cheeks as she desperately held onto Loki. "He's gone."

"You… this better not be real," she whispered. "You're not allowed to do this. Not now, not to me." Feeling like she had been ripped in half, she forced herself to look at him, to look at the red in his eyes, the veins in his forehead that had struggled to keep blood flowing to his brain, the dark marks that Thanos had left around his throat. The fear that still shined in his eyes, the absolute terror of what had been in front of him and what lay beyond it.

The only thing she could do was sit there and cry, trying to clutch onto both of them at once. Thor, for his part, managed to hold onto her as she sobbed, feeling her entire being shake with the anger, the misery, the pain, and the sheer terror that was all too much for one person to handle at once. It seemed like hours later when Laurel sat up, wiping at her cheeks with a new determination.

She looked to Thor, taking his hand as she started speaking. Her voice was gravelly, as a result of having broken down completely. Thor soon joined her when he realized what she was saying, the two of them holding their small vigil on the wreckage of a doomed ship, repeating the same words over and over again. "We bid you take your place among the warriors in the halls of Valhalla, where… where thine enemies have been vanquished, where the brave shall live forever. Nor shall we mourn but rejoice for those that have died the… the glorious death." It was the traditional Asgardian prayer when someone had fallen in battle, when one of their leaders had died or been killed.

Thor fell silent, Laurel adding in a low voice, "I'll find him for you. I'm going to find him and make him regret ever trying to stop this ship, make him regret ever coming for us. I'll… I'll make him wish for something as simple, something as comforting as pain." She leaned forward, kissing Loki's cheek and realizing how cold he had gotten. "I love you."

As she was about to turn to Thor, something shook the ship. One more immense blow followed, and they were thrown into the air, looking around to see that the ship was coming apart around them. Laurel immediately conjured a portal, grabbing on to Loki. "Go. You don't have time," Thor commanded. "Take him and go."

"Come with me." It was already getting harder to breathe as the vacuum of space began filling the remains of the ship. "Come with…"

Thor pointed out a craft coming towards them, its lights blinking to indicate that it had received their distress signal and was coming to help. "I'll handle them. I can survive in space longer than you can. Go. Take care of him."

Laurel nodded, launching herself and Loki into the portal. She held onto him for dear life as they hurtled through a brief flash of nothingness before tumbling down onto the grass. Sitting up slowly, she realized where they were. There was a forest behind her, a dense forest that bordered the dark lake in front of them. It was much colder than it had been back at the Avengers Facility. Norway. They had landed by the side of a lake in Norway, with no other people in sight.

Looking down to where Loki lay, it all hit her again. He was dead. He was really dead. And there was nothing she could do about it. All of the pain, the horrible heartbreak that was already eating her up inside, all of it had to wait, because Thanos was out there and was moving to collect more of the Infinity Stones. He would surely kill again. And if they they waited for too long, he would surely kill a whole lot more. There really wasn't time for mourning. Instead, she had to force herself to get up and start preparing for an Asgardian funeral.

* * *

A.N.: This scene in Infinity War KILLED me. But our story is far from over... next chapter coming soon!


	25. The Sun Rises Again in the Morning

A.N.: I know I usually only publish a chapter a day, but this is a special case. I figured we needed (well, not closure, but) something after the last chapter, so here's a special treat.

* * *

There was a small cabin on the lake, not far from where Laurel had crash landed. It was uninhabited, but clearly was used as someone's home for part of the year. For now, though, she had decided to use it, at least as a base camp while she got things prepared for a funeral. Sitting on the cabin's bed, Laurel pulled her hair back, trying to remember how Norse funerals were conducted. She'd never seen one on Asgard, but she could pull something together, from what she knew of old Norse funerals and from what Loki had told her about the funerals he had attended. And from the Viking documentaries she had seen on TV.

She had laid out the body on the bed next to her, and was busy trying to comb his hair out and make him look as much like an Asgardian prince as she could when she heard a noise. Immediately she jumped up, conjuring a pair of daggers and looking around. They were Loki's, of course. He had taught her how to do that early on. Magic was one thing, but sometimes nothing could beat real weapons. Creeping up to the door, she swung it open, expecting to see Thanos and his army waiting for her outside. But there was no one else there. She circled the cabin, finding nothing. Shrugging it off as paranoia, she went back inside.

Just as she settled back down, she was startled by a man's voice saying, "I'm so sorry."

Now she knew something was up. "Show yourself," Laurel commanded, her weapons at the ready.

"We cannot do that, dear." This was a woman's voice, one she had only heard when Loki conjured images of her to illustrate his stories. "I wish we could be there with you."

It was joined by the man's voice again, which explained, "It takes a lot of energy to project into this realm from Valhalla. Showing ourselves would be too much."

"Frigga? Odin?"

"Yes," the woman's voice answered. "You need us to help you, dear. You have never seen a full, formal Asgardian funeral, have you?"

"No." It was odd, talking to the air and having it answer her. "I have a bit of an idea about them, but I've never seen one in person."

"That's quite alright," Frigga said comfortingly. She wished more than anything that she could be there to hug her close-to-a-daughter-in-law. "We are here to help you. And to see our son off. His soul cannot reach Valhalla until you do this."

"I don't have a waterfall, or an archer, or… much of anything we need, really."

"You can improvise," Odin assured her. "First you need to gather materials for the casket and the barge. Go outside. I will watch over him here."

Laurel got up, squeezing Loki's hand before she left. The forest was full of branches and logs that she could use, magically roping them together on the shore of the lake. She was just far enough from the cabin where she could see it but still have plenty of building room. Frigga's voice kept her company, encouraging her and promising that she would keep an eye on Loki in Valhalla until Laurel got there to meet him. It was while she was fitting together part of the barge that a ship landed further down the lake. Tensing up, Laurel drew her daggers again, preparing for a fight. However, the thing she saw when the door opened was a friendly face. Thor emerged first, accompanied by what she could only describe as a raccoon and a walking tree. She waved, Thor waving back as they made their way over.

Thor led the group, saying that he had made a quick stop on his mission for the funeral. He knew she would be conducting one, and his brother needed as many people there for support as possible. He engulfed her in a hug as soon as he reached her. "It's good to see you again. Who are they?" Laurel asked, watching as the tree walked along the lake, skipping stones on the water. The raccoon, who she could now see walked on two legs, was animatedly talking to the tree.

"That one's Groot. You won't understand his language, but he's very smart. Rocket, the rabbit over there, you'll be able to understand. I was picked up by their ship. The other half are headed for another Infinity Stone, hopefully before Thanos gets to it," Thor explained, joining her working on the barge. "They're good creatures."

Frigga's disembodied voice agreed. "That they are."

Thor whirled around, looking for the source of the voice. "Mother?"

"She and your father have been helping me. It's a long story, but they're sort of looking in from Valhalla," Laurel told him, stepping back as she cast another spell, bringing together the two halves of the barge.

"She's a witch," Rocket remarked, coming over to see what they were up to. "Nice."

The walking tree followed in his wake. He could sense how broken Laurel was, reaching out for her with a branch. "I am Groot."

"He says he's sorry," Thor translated as Laurel took the branch, looking at the bagre and the casket they had built.

"I am Groot."

"And that he wants to help you because... what was that last part?"

"I am Groot."

"Because he knows what it's like to lose someone," Thor finished, looking to Laurel.

She smiled, saying, "Thank you, Groot. Next we need to find some flowers. And I'm going to need a sword. I have no idea where we'd get one, but-"

"At your service, m'lady." Rocket dropped his bag, digging through a bunch of clattering objects until he pulled out a sword, handing it over. "Easy."

Laurel inspected the weapon, turning it over in her hands. "How the hell… this looks like it's Asgardian. Where did this come from?"

"A little planet called Sakaar. We had a run-in with the guy in charge in the armory a few years back. Quill had me take anything I could carry. Real weirdo, that guy was."

"Quill?"

"He's leading the rest of them over to find the Aether," Thor told her. "I'll introduce all of you later. For now, we need flowers."

They gathered armfuls of whatever flowers they could find, bringing them over to where the barge was waiting. It was getting later, Rocket going to start a fire and scrounge up some food (and whatever else he could steal) from the cabin while the rest of them put everything together. Frigga's voice kept Laurel company as she walked through the woods, picking flowers off of plants and carrying them carefully. Odin's voice - and some sort of disembodied presence - stayed with Loki while they were preparing everything.

"Hey, the dead guy's kind of bringing things down in there. And the creepy ghost voice won't shut up and let me cook," Rocket said, coming out to meet them. "Keeps trying to tell me how to season things, but all we've got in there is salt and pepper."

"I'll handle this." Thor left where he, Laurel, and Groot had been weaving flowers together, emerging from the cabin moments later with his brother. He gently laid the body in its coffin, Laurel laying the sword in his hands, like an old knight. She began decorating everything with the flowers as Rocket took Groot inside to help him with dinner, leaving Thor and Laurel alone with Frigga's voice.

"You are going to need everything you can get to face him," Frigga's voice told them, interrupting Laurel's thoughts as she laid more flowers in the casket. "Laurel, dear, of course you do not have to this, but if you would like, we could grant Thor the power to still make you a goddess. You would have more endurance, heal faster, and be able to take on a lot more damage before you were actually injured. You do not have to if you do not want to, but it would be one more thing to help defeat Thanos."

"What would I even be the goddess of?" Laurel asked as she wove a few flowers into Loki's hair. Looking at him made her voice tremble, even though she was determined to hold off on breaking down until Thanos had been dealt with. "Isn't everything kind of… taken?"

"I would share my powers with you. I could make you the Goddess of Loyalty and Fidelity, since you are so dearly attached to Loki that you are about to go into battle to avenge him," Frigga responded, her voice soft. "I also think we should extend you the title of Princess, since, by proxy at least, you were one. You were so close to becoming one. It is up to Thor, of course." If she could have looked to him with concern, she would have,

Thor nodded. "I could think of no one better. Princess of Asgard, would you like to become a goddess?"

"If it helps me defeat Thanos, then yes."

"Thor, dear, find your father. You will need his abilities."

Thor left Laurel for a moment, heading back into the cabin. When he returned, he looked no different, but Laurel could tell that Odin had blessed him somehow. She sat on the side of the barge as Thor came to stand over her, putting a hand on her shoulder and saying, "I, Thor, King of Asgard, God of Thunder, Odinson, blessed by the power of the Allfather, grant you the title of Princess of Asgard and a goddess-ship over loyalty and fidelity, for as long as you shall live." He closed his eyes, a sudden feeling of nausea coming over Laurel. She blinked, suddenly finding herself being supported by Thor, who had knelt down to put his arm around her. "There you are. I thought I'd lost you for a moment."

"What… what happened?" she asked weakly, trying in vain to stand up on her own. "Oh, not a good idea."

Making her sit down again, Thor explained that, "Being made a goddess is something that just doesn't happen, especially not to a Midgardian. You're simply not built for all of that power at once. Eventually you'll be able to handle it, but for right now, it will take a lot of effort. You're not going to feel well for a while. After the funeral and dinner, you're going to want to go right to sleep. For now, you can suppress it with magic and lean on me when you need to."

"I… thank you. And thank you, Allfather. Mother." Even though she couldn't see them, she had to thank the voices anyway. Turning to Thor, she added, "Everything is ready. Let's get the others."

Thor went to find them, leaving Laurel with the barge. She looked down to where Loki lay, incredibly peaceful-looking in spite of everything that had happened. "I'm going to find him," she vowed, leaning in to kiss him one more time. "I'm going to find him, and I'm going to kill him. I promise I'll make him pay for this." She twisted the ring on her finger, glancing up to see Thor, Rocket, and Groot coming back from the cabin to meet her. "Loki, I love you."

"You check his pockets?" Rocket called. Laurel, incensed, was about to answer when Thor stopped her.

"He's right, you know. Any sort of Asgardian weapon would help," Thor offered as they all came to stand next to the barge.

Laurel reached into his pockets, finding nothing but a small piece of paper. It looked like it had been torn from one of the log books on the _Statesman._ In Loki's careful hand, there were a few words, clearly left for her.

 _Don't panic, sweetheart. The sun rises again in the morning. I love you._


	26. An Asgardian Funeral

It was nearly sunset when they were ready, a perfect time for a formal Asgardian funeral, the kind fitting a member of the royal family. The four of them stood there, looking out over the water as Thor spoke the customary Asgardian blessing again. He looked to where his brother was lying, adding, "Brother, we may not have always gotten along, but you were… in the end, I could want nothing else. We will do everything we can to take Thanos down, I promise you that."

Laurel took her turn to speak, moving forward and placing her hand on the end of the barge. "When I first met you - before I first met you, I was warned about you. About the things you'd done, about why you were being held in the Avengers Facility. But I didn't listen. I thought I'd treat you just like anyone else, because you had never wronged me. I was looking for redemption, and I knew you were too. So I treated you like I would want to be treated if… if the others knew the things I had done, the people I had hurt. I'm so glad that I did. Loki, you've given me… you've shown me so much love, coming from a place of so much pain. I hope that I was able to make you," she paused, her voice catching in her throat, "a fraction of how happy you made me. You showed me that they were wrong. That you weren't dangerous, not to me. Even when I told you who I was, what I'd done, you loved me anyway."

She paused again, trying her best not to cry. Groot reached out, taking her hand as she faltered. "I am Groot," he said encouragingly, nodding at her to continue. Laurel took a deep breath, silently thanking him. "I am Groot."

"Real love is about acceptance and vulnerability, and when you can truly accept someone for who they are, flaws and all, their past and all… that's what love is. I love you, Loki. I will always love you, faults and all. I'll see you again, one day. I can't wait to see you again, Loki." She wiped at her cheeks, magically pushing the barge forward. "Goodbye for now, my prince. I love you."

They all watched as the barge moved towards the middle of the lake. Laurel stood back with the rest of them, Thor quietly warning them about what he was about to do. Groot put his hands over his ears, Rocket and Laurel bracing themselves. There was a flash of lightning, followed by a loud crack of thunder, lighting the barge on fire. Thor held Laurel's hand, the two of them watching the funeral barge burn.

They stood there for much longer than the other two, staring at the burning spot in the middle of the lake. Rocket and Groot eventually went inside for dinner, but they stood there, waiting until everything had burned down and was engulfed by the black water. As the last of it sank, Laurel turned to Thor, who wordlessly hugged her as tightly as he could. They had both lost someone so important, their lives being rocked by Thanos and his army. "He was the last… I have nothing left to lose," Thor told her, Laurel sobbing as she held onto him.

"Yes you do. You have me. You have the others. We all have each other, and we're not going to stop fighting… we're not going to stop fighting until Thanos is dead," Laurel resolved. "We're going to fight for him, and for Frigga, and for Odin, and for every Asgardian that he's massacred. We're going to fight…" Her voice faltered, Thor realizing exactly how much this had taken out of her.

"You're still getting used to being a goddess, remember? Your body is trying to rewire itself to accommodate all of the power you now hold. You need something to eat, and you need to rest."

The two of them set out for the cabin, sitting down to eat dinner with Rocket and Groot. As they ate, Thor explained his plan. He would be taking the others to Nidavellir, since he needed a new weapon, something like Mjolnir, now that Thanos was coming for the infinity Stones. Meanwhile, she would head back to New York, meeting up with the others. They surely had a more concrete plan for dealing with Thanos and making sure the Infinity Stones were safe. Thor wanted to head out right after they finished dinner, thinking that they needed to reach Nidavellir as quickly as they could. There was no betting on what Thanos could be up to, so he needed a new weapon, and fast.

Groot helped Laurel clean up as Thor and Rocket went to check on the ship. She couldn't understand his language, but she understood the sentiment behind it when he looked first to the bed where Loki had lain, then to the window that overlooked the lake, and then back to Laurel. "I am Groot."

"I know. You would have liked him." And Loki would have liked Groot, thinking that he was an interesting creature at the very least. Thor understood his language. Perhaps Loki would have been able to talk to him too. "He's.. he was wonderful."

He handed her a stack of clean plates, nodding and saying, "I am Groot."

Thor returned, telling Groot that the ship was ready. Groot said his goodbyes, Thor lingering in the cabin to talk to Laurel as the tree went to join Rocket on the ship. "Stay here and rest for the night. You can meet the others in the morning, but for now, save your strength. Here." He walked to the fireplace, creating a small spark and igniting the logs inside. "I should be back on Earth soon, if all goes well."

Laurel came over to give him a hug, her almost-brother-in-law holding onto her tightly. The two of them, the King of Asgard and its assumed Crown Princess, the royal family without a kingdom to lead, seemed so small in that moment, so powerless for a couple of gods. In the last day, they had lost so much - their kingdom, some of their greatest weapons, and Loki. Loki. He was really gone. Both of them knew it, feeling the pain deeply but desperately trying to push it down so they could still function. There was still so much to do, still a mad Titan to stop, no matter what they had lost. "Thank you. For everything," Laurel croaked, finally letting go of him. "Good luck on Nidavellir. Be careful."

"You too," Thor told her, wishing her all the best. "Take care of yourself."

Watching from the window, Laurel saw Thor head for the ship, taking off a moment or two after he made it onboard. They were gone in an instant, leaving Laurel alone in the Middle of Nowhere, Norway. As she sat down on the bed, a wave of exhaustion hit her, the force of being a goddess finally catching up to her. She had constantly been moving since Thor made her a goddess, helping with dinner, eating with the rest of them, coming up with a plan. But now that she was able to sit and think, it was all hitting her. The cellular changes of becoming a goddess zapped her energy, but there was a knot in her stomach, something that had been welling up inside her for a while.

Staring into the fire, she zoned out for a moment, tears starting to roll down her cheeks as she thought of how she would never be able to sit in front of the library's fireplace with Loki again. They would never sit up reading, sharing passages from their books with each other or tossing glowing orbs of light back and forth absentmindedly. They would never sit in front of the fire in the living room either, a spot that Laurel loved and Loki put up with, since he wasn't very fond of being out and socializing with the others all that much. She felt the tears that dripped down her nose, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the fire. At least not until she started sobbing.

Everything hurt. Losing him was so painful that it physically hurt, like she had been repeatedly punched in the stomach. As she sobbed uncontrollably, she sank off of the bed and onto the floor, wanting to feel something solid, something real. It hurt so badly that she could hardly think straight. She could feel her face getting warmer, both from the sheer force of crying and from sitting closely to the fire. It was hard not to hiccup, trying to breathe through the forceful tears, through the terrible, guttural noise of the kind of crying that can only come from the deepest of hurts, a kind of pain that was unknowable until you were in the thick of it.

When she had cried herself into an exhaustion, Laurel sat up again, going to find something to blow her nose with. As she wiped at her cheeks, she could feel the awful puffiness of her eyes. She couldn't help but to laugh a bit to herself, thinking of how she wished she could cool her skin like Loki could. Completely drained, she fit a chair under the door handle before dropping into bed. Again, she stared into the fire, which had long since started dying. The embers still smoldered, a deep orange that could only be seen in fire. It was beautiful, a strange kind of beauty that Laurel hardly had time to look for anymore. Not since she had joined the Avengers. Loki had helped her to see that beauty again, with the auroras he liked making. When one of them woke up in the middle of the night from an awful nightmare, he would invariably throw a handful of dim lights into the air, swirling them together until they formed an aurora over their heads. They would finally fall asleep again, watching the twinkling aurora and leaning into each other.

Laurel cast her own aurora in the corner, a shimmering combination of green, gold, and white light. She watched it for a while, pulling blankets over herself and trying to get comfortable in the borrowed bed. It felt wrong, laying there without Loki next to her. Even when he came to bed much later than she did, it wasn't lonely. Not like it was that night. Resisting the temptation to just conjure an image of him to lay next to her, Laurel looked out the window at the moon before closing her eyes. She wouldn't be able to sleep well, but she would at least try. "Goodnight, Loki," she mumbled into the darkness. "I love you."


	27. Aftermath

_Laurel stood in the middle of a grand ballroom, surrounded by people in glittering outfits and sculptures carved out of gold and marble. She reached up to see what the weight was on her face, finding that she was wearing a mask, just like everyone else in the room. People milled about, dancing and drinking and talking, having fun together. But she was alone, even in the crowded room. At least until she looked up, meeting the eye of a man in a suit, far away from her. She recognized him immediately, even under the mask. "Loki!"_

 _Both of them tried to move through the crowd towards each other, plenty of people getting in their way. Excusing themselves as much as they could, they shoved their way through, desperately reaching out for each other like two people stuck in the middle of a storm. They were only a few feet apart, their fingers almost touching as they strained towards each other, when Laurel saw the growing threat behind him._

 _Thanos had smashed his way through, sweeping people aside as he reached out for Loki, seizing him just as Laurel reached him. "No! Don't, please! Leave him alone! Please, don't hurt him!"_

 _She could do nothing as Thanos lifted Loki off of his feet, his hand tightening around Loki's throat as Laurel pled with him to stop. There was a terrible cracking noise, everything going black._

The cracking, the same cracking she had heard before Thanos dropped Loki onto the deck of the Asgardian ship, woke her up. It was a terrible splintering sound that she would never forget, the painful snapping of bones that rung in her ears. She would hear that sound every night, making her bolt up in bed no matter where she was. Looking to the soft glow of the aurora in the corner for comfort, Laurel would lay back down, trying to catch her breath. Little did she know that it would happen every night, a different beautiful dream with the same horrible ending.

For now, though, she lay back down, trying to close her eyes again. Tossing and turning in bed, she finally gave in, conjuring an image of Loki. It was more ghostly than real, shimmering green and gold. "I'd give my right arm to have you here next to me," she whispered. "What did you mean by 'the sun rises in the morning'? What am I supposed to get from that? I swear, if this is all a trick, if it's to play off of Thor and I's emotions… that's just cruel." She could feel the tears bubbling up again as the fake Loki watched her with interest. "It's cruel, Loki. I swear, if you did something like that, I'll have to bring you back and kill you myself. Who am I kidding, I'd never be able to let you go long enough to do that."

His ghostly image said nothing, simply existing in that moment in time. It was like talking to a brick wall, but at least this one could make different facial expressions. "I don't know how I'm going to tell the others… What if they say some awful things about you? I know they think them sometimes, but you know I'd just end up crying in front of them now. Damn it, Loki, come back here! This isn't funny!" She rolled over in bed, facing the wall and brushing the image of Loki away in frustration.

In the morning, Laurel felt a lot stronger, like she was ready to go into battle. Whatever becoming a goddess had taken out of her, it had certainly been replenished overnight. She found some breakfast before leaving a note and locking up the cabin. Outside, she conjured a portal, opening up a pathway back to the Avengers Facility. Turning back to look at the lake one last time, she mumbled a quick "goodbye" before stepping into the portal.

She ended up in an empty hallway, staring at her door. "You need a shower. And then you've got to find the others and tell them what's going on," she resolved, unlocking her door and heading inside.

Once she had showered, Laurel pulled on whatever clothes she could grab, suddenly starving. It took a lot to become a goddess, apparently, and feeling like she could eat an entire cow was only part of it. She was about to set out for the kitchen when she noticed her unmade bed, the green pillow that Loki had brought over from his room still lying there. _Don't. Don't sit down or you'll start crying again. Don't lay down until it's time to go to bed. Just don't. Go get something to eat._ She forced herself to leave, heading for the kitchen.

Steve found her in the kitchen, making a lunch big enough for three people. "Hungry?" he laughed, opening the fridge behind her. "Hey, do you know how the tracking function works on our comms watches? I know Tony only turns it on for missions, but mine keeps beeping. I think I broke something."

"That's your alarm," Laurel told him in a weary voice as she reached for a spatula. "You must have hit it by accident. I keep setting mine by accident too, don't worry."

"What's wrong?" he asked, having noticed the clear change in her voice. She didn't sound like the normal Laurel, not like the friend he knew so well. "How was Asgard? Did something happen?"

Laurel moved the pan she had been using off of the stove, switching the burner off before turning to meet his eye. "He's dead."

"Loki?"

She nodded, Steve setting his things down and coming to give her a hug. "We were attacked. Thanos… Thanos killed him. Bruce made it back here. Thor's gone to get a new weapon to fight him because… he's gathering up Infinity Stones. But Loki… he snapped his neck, Steve…"

"I'm sorry. I saw how much he meant to you," Steve told her, holding her close as she started crying again.

"Damn it, this isn't supposed to happen." The frustration of trying not to cry only made it worse. "I'm not supposed to be… I'm supposed to be angry and run into battle and… I'm not supposed to cry right now."

"If you're crying, you need to cry," Steve offered, softening his voice. "Even if you don't want to. You've just lost someone who was so important -"

"I can't," Laurel breathed, trying to calm down, "because we have to fight. We have to take Thanos down. Loki was hiding one of the Infinity Stones all along, and Thanos came for him. That's why most of Asgard is dead, because he tried to protect the Space Stone. He had it hidden for a long time, but… Steve, we have to hunt him down before he can collect any more of them."

"We will," he promised, reaching for a box of tissues.

Nat raced in, saying, "Steve, we need to get to Wanda and Vision. They're in big trouble. What... what happened?"

"I'll explain on the jet. Laurel, stay here," Steve commanded. That was enough for her. She leaned back on the kitchen counter, watching as Steve and Nat dashed off for the jet. Just like that, she was alone again.

"Bye, guys," she mumbled under her breath, watching the jet taking off from her spot in the kitchen. "Good luck."

She spent the rest of the day between the gym and the pool, keeping in contact with the others. Bruce and Tony had gone to hunt down Stephen Strange and warn him about Thanos coming for the Time Stone, which he was guarding in the Sanctum. Thor, as far as she knew, was still headed for Nidavellir with Rocket and Groot. The others, having picked up Sam on the way, were headed to intercept Wanda and Vision. Even Pepper was gone, having left to handle some Stark Industries business in the city.

It was too quiet. Most of the time, she would have enjoyed the silence, but now it felt wrong. Even blasting music in the gym, running as hard as her legs could take, she couldn't focus on anything other than Loki. He was gone. She wanted to believe that it was a trick, but he was really gone. Even Odin and Frigga had said so… unless it was Loki's voice she had heard all along. As she slowed the treadmill down, Laurel pulled her ponytail out, putting her hair back up as she muttered to herself, "I don't even know what's real anymore."

No one was home by the time she made dinner, so Laurel ate alone, trying to distract herself by watching mindless TV. By the time she went to bed, Laurel was beyond tired, from the process of becoming a goddess, from all of the exercise she had done, and from the sheer weight of the stress she was under. Grabbing a few things from her room, she set out for Loki's quarters. He had long since given her a key (as she had given him a key to hers), so she was able to walk right in. Not that it mattered much for two sorcerers. Locked doors were no trouble at all, even without keys.

His bedroom was a lot darker than hers, covered in green and gold. He had also left his bed unmade, not that he ever bothered to make it. All Laurel could think of doing was climbing into his bed and falling asleep, but as soon as she was under the covers, she was wide awake. Hundreds of hours of memories came flooding back - sitting here reading with him, watching movies on her laptop as they ate way too many snacks, staying up telling stories about Asgard and Earth, planning for the future. All of the times they had found each other in the middle of the night after having horrific dreams. The first time Laurel had stayed there, falling asleep in his bed with a book still open in her hands, Loki not having the heart to move her. And of course all of the things they had done, all of the kisses and moments of bliss they had shared, stories that would never be told to anyone else.

The sheets and pillows smelled like him, Laurel holding onto one of the pillows tightly, wishing that it could turn into him. At that moment, she would have given anything to have him there. A noise down the hall told her that people were back, but she didn't feel like getting up. Rather, she couldn't drag herself out of bed to say hello. _Steve's told them. You don't need to bother. They know. They'll understand._

It took a while, but she managed to fall into a light sleep, which was almost immediately disturbed by the noise of a large group coming home. Laurel reached for her glasses, getting out of bed and going to see what was going on. As she passed through the small kitchen in Loki's quarters, she smiled to herself, seeing the photos of the two of them that he had stuck on the fridge.

When she reached the living room, she found a group of people sitting around and talking. Bruce and Rhodes had been the ones to get home earlier, the larger group of Steve, Nat, Sam, Wanda, and Vision arriving a while later. All of them were up talking, grabbing a midnight snack and something to drink after flying across the world. Steve was the first one to say hello, offering her his spot and going to make a cup of tea for her. Everyone else gave her sympathetic looks as she sat down.

For her part, Laurel couldn't bring herself to meet Wanda's eye. As Steve came back, a cup of tea in hand, Wanda looked over to her, saying, "It's alright. I know you were only doing what you did because they would have killed you otherwise. I've long since forgiven the people who did their work at gunpoint. The ones pointing the guns, well, they're a different story. But we all have bigger problems now."

"Bigger problems?" Laurel instinctively looked to Steve, who nodded.

"Thanos is sending his lackeys to collect the rest of the Infinity Stones," Nat told her, looking to the others as she explained, "and we've got to stop him. His plan is to wipe out half of the universe with them. We've got the Mind Stone with us." She nodded to Vision, who smiled at Laurel. "We've decided we need to destroy it. The first step to getting it without hurting Vision is to find someone who has better tech than Tony."

"We're headed to Wakanda in the morning," Steve added.

"Wakanda? They've got the tech, but we'd have to get past their defenses."

"I just so happen to know a guy. We leave bright and early, but for now, we all need some rest. Wanda, Vision -"

"They can take my room for the night," Laurel offered, tossing them her key. "Really, it's not a problem. The least I could do, given…"

"Where are you going to sleep then?" Nat asked, raising an eyebrow. Bruce gave her a look, reminding her of what had happened. "Oh, never mind. Well, if you need anything, you've got us. Even if you want someone to talk to in the middle of the night, my door's not far."

"Thanks." Laurel said goodnight to everyone as they split off for their rooms, soon leaving only her and Steve, the two of them migrating to the kitchen to put everything in the dishwasher. "Hey, have you heard from Tony?"

"He was headed for the Sanctum, last I heard," Steve sighed, fishing under the sink for some dishwashing cubes. "Bruce says he and Strange got into a bit of a fight."

Laurel sent them both a text while she waited, wondering where they had ended up. "Stephen says they're in space. He's putting up a magic signal to send this, but… he says he and Tony - oh, and Peter - are headed for Titan. They're going to try to head Thanos off."

 _Be careful, Stephen._

 _I will. I heard what happened on the Asgardian ship. I'm so sorry._

 _Thanks._

"Well, we'll be doing the same thing in Wakanda tomorrow. It's quite the place. You'll enjoy it."

"We've got to stop him, Steve," Laurel resolved, the two of them starting to walk back to their quarters. "I have no idea what we'll do if he manages to get all of them. I know he's only a third of the way there, but still… He wants to wipe out half of the universe in the name of what? Compassion?"

Steve shook his head, stopping outside of his door. "Who knows? He just wants to have power over everything. He's not going to stop until he gets what he wants, or until we stop him. So that's what we're going to do. And step one is in Wakanda. I'll see you in the morning, okay? Try to get some sleep. I know it'll be difficult, but just try." He gave her a final hug before going to bed, Laurel going off to Loki's room and laying down, knowing it would take her forever to fall asleep again.


	28. The Battle for Wakanda

" _Love, wake up. You've got to get yourself together. Steve and the others are waiting for you. Come on, get up." Loki shook her shoulder, but Laurel was adamant about not getting out of bed._

" _I don't want to move," Laurel smiled, reaching up to kiss her fiance. "Please, just five more minutes. And don't let go of me. I know you're terribly bored without me here during the day. Let's just stay here."_

 _Loki frowned, telling her that, "You've got to get up and save the world. I would much prefer you to stay here with me all day, but the world is in desperate need of saving."_

" _The world can wait five more minutes," she yawned, pleading with him to stay there, in that moment, at least for a little while longer. "Please?"_

" _You have to get up." Loki was insistent, sitting up with her in bed._

" _I don't want to let go of you."_

" _Laurel, you can't stay here. I'm not here. I'm not real. You've got to realize that."_

Jolting awake, Laurel realized that her alarm was going off. She reached out and turned it off, lazily rolling over. It was early, so early that the sun was nowhere close to coming up. But Steve wanted to be on the jet before sunrise, so they could reach Wakanda by the middle of the morning.

She got ready quietly, already missing hearing Loki there with her. If she had to leave for a mission in the middle of the night, he would get up with her, making tea and breakfast while she grabbed her gear and got herself together. She would kiss him goodbye, thanking him for making her something to eat and promising that she would be home soon. He would only go back to bed when he saw the jet was in the air, knowing that they were on their way.

The others were assembling in the kitchen, Laurel joining them as they waited, grabbing food to go. They mumbled their good mornings to each others, sleepily standing around and talking until Steve arrived, coming in from the jet. "We're all set. Let's go." As they walked, he gave them a classic Steve Rogers pep talk. "We're heading into this thinking we've got time, but I don't know how much we really have. We're going to have to be on our guard, because Thanos is coming for the Mind Stone. We just don't know his timeline. Our job is going to be to protect Vision on the way there, and guard the lab once we get to Wakanda. Are we clear?"

Everyone gave their various expressions of assent, following him onto the jet. It was a relatively calm trip there, Laurel spending much of her time staring out of the window. The others knew well enough to leave her be, Steve coming to sit beside her in silence. He offered his support without saying a word, Laurel laying her head on his shoulder and saying, "It's so… empty. I woke up this morning and thought he'd gotten up to get a drink or something, and then I remembered that he's not coming back. It's so empty living there without him. It's too quiet. Steve, I… my fiancé's dead."

"I'm sorry. And I'm sorry you can't really mourn because of all of this. It isn't fair," he told her. "I've seen a lot of loss in my time, but nothing hurts more than losing someone you love like that."

Laurel nodded, confessing that, "I can't help but remember… every night I wake up hearing that noise, the sickening snapping… I heard it. I watched Thanos drop him on the ground in front of Thor and I. I held him as he died, Steve. I can't get any of it out of my head. I really don't want to remember, but I can't stop it. I'm getting tempted to magically knock myself out so I don't have to dream."

He reached over and hugged her. "I know. You don't deserve to have to hear it, to have to see it over and over again, but knocking yourself out all of the time would probably hurt you in the long run. Here, look, we're coming up on Wakanda now."

The two of them looked out over the forest, which vanished as the jet got closer, revealing a thriving city full of futuristic technology, far different from the forest that had been concealing it. The city spread out into a wide field, even more of the country lying beyond it in the distance. "That's amazing. How do they cloak it that well?"

"No idea. But they're good people. King T'Challa is going to meet us there. I'm sure he could explain it all to you, if you wanted."

Laurel marveled at the wonders of Wakanda, trying to take everything in as they were led to the laboratory, meeting up with an entire team of warriors and Steve's old friend Bucky. She'd heard a lot about him, but they'd never met. After a few words from Steve, though, they got along well, having a mutual understanding that only true fighters could have. While Wanda and Vision remained in the labs, the others spread out over the palace, standing guard just in case Thanks decided to come for the Mind Stone while Shuri, the king's younger sister and most trusted scientist, worked on safely extracting it from Vision's forehead. Laurel's patrol was right out in front of the lab, stationed next to Bucky.

"What is he planning?" Bucky finally asked, breaking the silence between them. "And what are you looking at?"

"Sorry, I zoned out for a second. I can't help but to think… I just lost someone," Laurel confessed, turning to face him. "Thanos killed the man I was engaged to, a few days ago. Now all I can do is think of what I'll say to him when we come face-to-face again."

"I'm sorry."

"Thanks. Thanos is killing for the Infinity Stones because, with all of them, he can wipe out half of the universe and 'restore balance', whatever he thinks that means. He says it's a plan for sustainability, random selection of half of the universe to slow the draining of all of the resources we have. He'll just snap his fingers and they'll be gone," Laurel explained, coming over to stand beside him. "It's just random. Not natural selection, not choosing people for their traits, it's just a coin flip determining whether or not you'll survive."

Bucky thought for a moment, determining that, "As far as plans for restoring the balance to the universe, it's not a bad one. Cruel in the sense that they can't fight for their lives, but if it truly is random, it's a lot better than some of the men I've fought."

Laurel's comms unit started beeping. "We've got a problem. Steve says there's an army gathering outside of the dome. They're here."

"One of us needs to stay here," Bucky determined. "We can't both go. Someone needs to stay and guard the door."

"Wanda's inside. We can go. She's got a better chance if we're both out there." Needing no more convincing, Bucky led the way out of the labs and onto the battlefield, where King T'Challa, in his Black Panther armor, was rallying his troops. Steve, SAm, Nat, and Bruce, in his Hulkbuster armor, stood together assessing the situation. "What the hell are those things?"

Hordes of four-armed creatures were throwing themselves against the border shield, several of them dying as the dome was electrified. They had fangs, fearsome claws, and leathery skin, but seemed to be mindlessly rushing the dome, even as the first of them began to die on impact. "They look like bugs," Nat frowned, crossing her arms. "They certainly seem like giant space bugs."

"Are we just going to let them throw themselves against that thing?"

T'Challa appeared behind the group, saying, "The shield is faltering already. If we open it up just a bit, we might stand a chance against them. We could control where they go and keep them way from the labs."

"We would have a ton of them invading Wakanda," Sam objected, looking to T'Challa, who was still trying to assess the situation on the border. "I could hit them from above, and the army could hold them back on the ground. As long as we can keep them away from the labs long enough for Shuri to get that stone and for Wanda to destroy it."

"The shields can't hold for much longer," T'Challa said decisively. "I'm going to have part of them opened. Get ready."

Sam took off, reaching a decent height before the shield opened. Nat drew her weapons, Steve and Bruce preparing for a fight. Laurel conjured a couple glowing balls of fire, tossing them up and down as she waited. The shield was slowly opening up, the strange creatures flooding in and heading right for them. The group nall shared a nod before launching into battle, the Wakandan army at their sides.

Killing the creatures was fairly easy. All Laurel had to do was lob orbs of fire at their heads, throwing them off balance and engulfing them in flames. It all seemed possible, at least until the Black Order began to arrive. At first, she didn't take them on directly, instead seeing the damage they infocited on the others as she fought off the creatures trying to swamp her. But the fanged creatures were just the beginning of their tricks.

Suddenly everything fell silent around her, all of the creatures moving on to others. As she turned to face the opening in the shield, Laurel stopped abruptly, a man in full battle gear standing in front of her. She said nothing, just staring in awe. He was covered in green and black, the golden helmet that Tony always made fun of now glittering under the Wakandan sun. "Laurel? Dear, I'm sorry I couldn't find you until now."

"Loki?" she croaked, getting closer.

He smiled just a bit. "That's me. Come here, love."

Her heart swelled, but Laurel could feel that something was off. She approached hesitantly, stopping when she was an arm's length away. "What's wrong, love?"

"What ring do I always wear? Where did it come from?" she challenged him.

Loki beamed, saying, "The one I gave you when I asked you to be my queen. The most expensive ring in all of Midgard."

"It's not you."

"Whatever do you mean?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

 _The eyes. It's the eyes. It's always the eyes that they forget. Easy to forget, easy to miss. But I've sure as hell seen them enough to know that's not the right color._

"It was your mother's." Laurel bit her lip, moving slowly until she drew a dagger, stabbing the mirage in the stomach as hard as she could. As it flickered, she spat, "You could never be him. That's the thing about being a sorcerer, I know when I'm being tricked. Thanos, I know you're watching this… you could never be him. You could never be a god." The mirage shimmered for a second before disappearing, Laurel seeing that she had just stabbed one of the fanged creatures.

She took a deep breath, looking a the body of the creature that had just been Loki. _So Thanos isn't above playing at the things that really hurt. It's time to make him pay._


	29. On the Battlefield

A.N.: I had a bad day, so I'm order to spread positivity, I'm gifting y'all with another chapter kinda early. Have a great one, loves!

* * *

"We're outnumbered," Nat called from a few feet away, where she was busy fighting off Thanos' minions. Laurel hurled a ball of fire at the creature that was poised to attack her, Nat rolling out of the way of its body as it fell. "Thanks. Watch your left."

"We just have to keep holding them off!" Laurel yelled back, ducking as Bucky threw one of the creatures into another, right over her shoulder. "Bucky, move!" Hurling a ball of fire past him, she managed to take out two of the creatures at the same time. The two of them sprinted towards the opening in the shield, trying to repel the creatures from as far back as possible.

 _Tony, Stephen, and Peter are still gone. What the hell happened to them? If Thanos is coming for us, that means he's already got the rest of the stones._ A pang of sadness hit her as she realized that the three of them were probably already dead. The man who had trusted her after she revealed her past to him, who gave her a place to stay and taught her all that he knew. The one who had taken her in as a member of the Avengers family, who had hired her to join not only his team but his circle of friends. And the boy who was too young for this war, the one who treated her like an older sister, who would ask her tough questions about life as they trained side-by-side. They were all dead, and Thanos had gotten the Time Stone.

As she looked around the battlefield, she came to see how much they had all done for her, how many memories their little family had with each other. All of the training, the missions, the holidays, the galas, almost every waking moment was spent with their Avengers family. All they really had was each other, and now they were fighting not only for their lives, but for the lives of the rest of the universe.

Just as it seemed like they were being completely overrun by the strange creatures, there was a flash of lightning, striking the middle of the field in a blue explosion. Laurel turned to see a brilliant blue spark launching into the air before crashing back down to Earth, the majority of the fanged creatures falling back and turning to dust dust. Thor had arrived triumphantly, wielding a new weapon, with Rocket and Groot in tow.

Laurel jogged over, giving him a hug as they fought off the last few creatures coming their way. "Thanks. You got here just in time. We weren't doing so hot for a while there. We missed you."

"Glad I could help." Thor ducked out of the way as Laurel threw a disk made of gold sparks past him, striking one of the creatures and slicing it in half. "Nice shot."

"Not a problem," she smiled, glancing over to see him swinging his new weapon in the direction of a group of the creatures. "Where'd you get that?"

"I just took on the force of an exploding star for a Dwarf so he could forge it on Nidavellir, and then Groot sacrificed his left arm to complete it. What's new with you?"

"Not much, just battling an alien race controlled by Thanos, who's making me hallucinate images of your brother," she shrugged, falling another one of the creatures right before it bit her. She checked to make sure Thor still had her back. They were surrounded by a swarm of the creatures, fighting them off as they came up and tried to attack. "I just love these casual battlefield conversations," she joked as Thor spun one of the creatures around and sent it flying into the air.

She and Thor had never been as close as she and Steve were, but Loki had drawn them together. In the few days since they had lost him, the two of them were pulled together even more, bound by their shared grief and their status as the only members of the Asgardian royal family to come out of the massacre on the _Statesman_ alive. Laurel was a step away from being his sister-in-law, after all. She was the closest thing to family that Thor had left, and he was the closest thing to a brother that she had. The unspoken family of the Avengers had brought them together, but the recent past had cemented it.

"Cast one of your protective circles. Just around you," Thor commanded. Laurel obeyed immediately, knowing that he had an idea. There was another crack of lightning and an explosion next to her that shook the air. The roll of thunder that followed settled the dust, revealing the many, many creatures that Thor had killed with one bolt.

Laurel let the circle drop, looking around the battlefield. The others waved and smiled, taking down the last remaining creatures before turning their full attention to members of Thanos' Black Order, attacking them in groups. Laurel launched herself into battle, running to where Steve was struggling with one of Thanos' children. "No, girl," Corvus Glaive spat, easily throwing her back into a tree while Steve grappled with him.

The force of the impact made her eyesight go fuzzy, but she could still see that Vision had stabbed Glaive in the back, dropping him to the ground. Laurel blinked a few times, trying to be able to see clearly as she pushed herself up on her elbows. "I wouldn't do that just yet. Play dead for a minute. You're in an interesting place, astrally speaking." Loki was crouching down next to her, reaching out for her hand. Seeing the look she was giving him, he added, "Your engagement ring was my mother's, the dress you worse on New Asgard was the most brilliant shade of green, and you once almost fell out of bed when Thor knocked and we were -"

"Okay, okay, I believe you. The whole world doesn't need to know that."

"They can't hear me. We're not exactly in the real world right now. Just look."

Laurel could see the rest of them fighting, teaming up against the members of the Black Order, who were busy laying waste to the Wakandan army. But as she lifted her hand, Laurel could see that her astral form had left her body. "How…?"

"You hit your head pretty badly. It would have cracked a mortal's skull for sure. Don't worry, though, you're a goddess. You'll be healed in a few minutes. For now, just sit here with me and watch the battle."

"You're not real, are you?"

"Mmm, no. I'm a grief projection," he explained as they sat there together, two astral forms watching the world go by around them. "I'm the condensed form of Loki memories in your head. I'm not the real Loki. He's in Valhalla. But I can still keep you company now." He reached out for her hand, Laurel sadly lacing her fingers in with his. "He loves you, even there. It takes a lot of effort, but he tries to see you every day. Looking into the mortal world can be difficult, but he still does his best. Even if it's just a glance or two a day. He likes seeing you, and it breaks his heart that he can't reach out to you, especially when he looks in and sees that you're crying."

She nodded, knowing that these were just subconscious thoughts that now had a form to them. "You need to stop this. If you're just… a bunch of memories or whatever, you don't know any of that. It's just what I'm hoping."

"You want me to go away?" he asked, looking to her sadly.

"I think it would be for the best."

Loki's form nodded, kissing her on the forehead before vanishing. Immediately, Laurel's consciousness was thrust back into her own body. Sitting up was painful, but she was able to lean against a tree and see the battle going on around her. "You have got to stop doing that, brain," she muttered to herself, Getting up and stretching as Nat and Okoye, one of the best warriors in Wakanda and a military commander in her own right, felled one of Thanos' Black Order.

Thor jogged over, saying that they were about to win the battle. He stopped, asking if she was okay. Laurel, who was looking to the middle of the battlefield, shook her head slightly. Everything had fallen eerily silent, the others thinking that they had won the day. But in the middle of the field stood Thanos and his remaining followers, surveying the land. "He's got all of the other stones. It's just Vision left," Laurel whispered, everyone stopping to look to Thanos in awe. "Well shit." She took a deep breath, nodding to Thor and rushing for the middle of the battlefield.


	30. Endgame

It seemed like the entirety of the surviving Wakandan army was rushing to the middle of the battlefield, engaging Thanos and his Black Order. There was just one Infinity Stone standing between him and power over the entire universe. Even now, he was the most powerful being in the universe, with five stones in hand. _Even with all of you, there's no way you can take him on directly. Wanda destroying that stone is your only hope. If she manages, though, you'll still have to kill him._

The odds weren't good. As the others surrounded Thanos, Laurel broke off, running for where Vision and Wanda were fighting off the last remaining demon creatures he had brought into Wakanda. T'Challa and Okoye had the same idea, meeting her in the clearing and helping kill the last few creatures. "There's no other way," she could hear Vision saying, Wanda pleading with him to get back to the lab and let Shuri finish her work. "We do not have the time anymore."

"There has to be another way," Wanda told him, turning to where Vision was waiting for her.

"We don't have time," he pressed, Laurel ducking out of the way of one of the Black Order's spells.

"Not so fast," she muttered, hurling a flaming disk back. All she could do now was hold of the others while Wanda reluctantly worked on destroying the Mind Stone, still stuck in Vision's forehead. "Steve, don't!"

Steve had run at Thanos, trying to take him on by himself. Thanos was taken by surprise, but knocked him down soon enough. But it bought Wanda more time, just enough time to shatter the Mind Stone, Vision collapsing from the explosion that shook the entire forest. _It's done. We did it. Oh my god, we did it. Now we just have him to go through._

Thanos just laughed at them, Laurel slowly remembering that he had the Time Stone. She watched in horror as he wound time back, the shock wave subsiding and the pieces of the Mind Stone coming back together. Vision was momentarily healed, everyone winding back to their positions from a few minutes before. "No…" Thanos reached down and ripped the stone from Vision's forehead, placing it in the gauntlet that he had been filling through murder. That was it - the end of the world as they knew it.

Before any of them could react, Thor kept forward, swinging his new weapon into Thanos' chest. Everyone held their breath as the Titan stumbled, staggering a step back before saying something to Thor and snapping his fingers. _He did it. He really did it. We couldn't stop him._ Thanos smirked, disappearing with the rest of his Black Order, leaving Thor's weapon to clatter to the ground. As Thor picked it up, the others turned to look around the battlefield.

One by one, people were dissolving, flying away into nothingness where they stood. They dropped their weapons, turning to ash and floating away in the slight breeze. Laurel looked down at her hands, seeing that, at least for the moment, she wasn't dissolving. She jogged over to where Thor stood, grabbing his hand and hoping that if either of them were next, they would have someone to hold onto when the time came. _Please don't go. I can't do this on my own. I can't rule Asgard. I can't get through losing Loki. Thor, please don't go._

He didn't. Thor remained there with her, watching in shock and horror as members of the Wakandan army dissolved all around them. "Where'd he go?" Steve's voice came from behind them.

"I think he went home," Laurel breathed, turning to check on the others just in time to see Bucky dropping his gun. "No!"

"Steve?" Bucky looked up at his friend, saying nothing more as he vanished.

"No!" Steve couldn't have reached him in time if he tried. Instead, he just stood there staring at the spot that Bucky had once occupied. He didn't move for a few minutes, Laurel finally having to come over and take his hand, saying that they needed to get to the others. If any of them had survived.

Slowly, they made their way to the center of the battlefield. The three of them could see other people making their way to the middle, calling out for their friends and relatives as they tried to figure out who had vanished and who had survived. Nat was waiting for them, everyone taking their turns to give her a hug as she asked about Bucky. Laurel shook her head. "He's gone."

Bruce's Hulkbuster armor was easy to spot making its way over to where they were gathered. Thor waved him down as another suit of armor appeared behind them. "Hey, Rhodey," Steve nodded, his voice hollow as he scanned the horizon for any more survivors.

"They just…" Rhodes shook his head as he took his helmet off. "They're gone."

The longer they waited, the more they felt like they were the only Avengers to come out of the battle for Wakanda. Steve finally called it after Rocket arrived, shepherding them back towards the palace in silence. Laurel walked by his side, saying, "The flight on the jet is automated, right?"

Steve nodded. "What are you thinking?"

"I've got a plan, but the others might not like it." She would have explained further, but they came up on Shuri and her mother, holding each other as they mourned for T'Challa, who hadn't returned from the battle. Laurel but her lip, turning to the rest of her group and making an executive decision. "I'm sorry." She held up her hands, casting a spell over all of them. Confused, they looked around before dropping to the ground very slowly, as not to hurt themselves.

"What have you done?" Queen Ramonda gasped.

"It's alright," Laurel explained, coming over to join her and Shuri. "I've placed them in a kind of sleep. They can't hear or see anything, and their dreams won't be anything bad. It helps to soften the grief and the loss. They need to heal right now. I'll take them home and get them set up there."

"Thank you for all that you're done for us, even if… even if this is not what we had hoped for," the queen offered.

"You're welcome. I'll make sure to thank them for you too."

"What about you?" Shuri asked. "You've lost friends too."

She now turned to address Shuri directly, saying, "I lost the man I loved just a few days ago. I can handle the heartbreak of losing them too, at least long enough to get my friends home safely. Now you, Your Majesty, have the duty of leading your people through this loss and heartbreak. From one princess to another, it isn't easy. But I've seen you in the lab and in battle, and you have what it takes to be the first female Black Panther. Your mother can help you, and your father and your brother will be there to guide you. Even when they're gone, they aren't truly gone."

"Thank you," Shuri nodded, noticing the ring on Laurel's finger for the first time. "What was he like?"

Laurel sighed, confessing, "He was the God of Mischief. Not nearly as evil as people made him out to be. Just rather misunderstood. But I promise you, you have me. You have all of us. And we're going to track Thanos down and make all of this right."

It took her a little while to get everyone on the jet, but Laurel managed. She said her goodbyes, waving from the door of the plane. Okoye and the remaining Wakanda warriors have their salute, the queen and Shuri copying them. Laurel returned it, giving a, "Wakanda forever" before closing the door and starting the takeoff sequence. It had been Tony's great idea to make the sequence simple, so simple that Thor and Steve had mastered it even though they both had their issues with modern Midgardian technology. That meant it was easy for her to punch in the sequence of numbers and start the jet.

She got up after they had taken off and stabilized, pacing the ship. _Tony, Peter, and Stephen still might be alive. He could've trapped them on another planet, and you're the only one who can get to them._ Laurel paused, clearing a space in the middle of the jet before closing her eyes and picturing Peter. Peter, the kid who would tag along after her, who sat up eating Chinese food and watching movies with her and Loki late at night, who trained just as hard as the others did. It was a lot easier opening a portal to a location and not to a person, but it could be done. _Concentrate. Picture him, just like he was the last time you saw him at home._ The portal opened, but frizzled out in a second. Peter hadn't survived.

Crushed by the fact that they had lost him, and by the fact that he had been so young and so talented, that he had been so loved by all of them, Laurel leaned against the wall of the plane. She closed her eyes, picturing Stephen like she had seen him the last time she'd visited the Sanctum. How he'd been teaching a new class of recruits, five people this time instead of the three that had been in her class. How he'd smiled and introduced her, letting her finish the lesson herself. She'd left them to practice as they talked, Laurel filling him in on life with the Avengers. Even when they had been mad at each other, they had always been friends. Splitting up had been hard the on both of them, but they still talked. At first, Loki had been suspicious, especially since Stephen wasn't all that fond of him. But he had relaxed after a while, coming to see that they were now nothing more than friends and colleagues. Stephen's portal wouldn't open either.

"Please, Tony, please be alive," she muttered, trying to picture him as he was back at dinner before she went to New Asgard. He was sitting there, a glass of scotch in hand, commenting snidely on something Steve had brought up. Laurel hadn't been paying much attention to the conversation, instead talking to Thor and Loki about the problems New Asgard was facing. Slowly, the circle of sparks expanded, the portal opening. "Yes!" She stepped through, finding Tony sitting on a rocky planet. He was joined by a blue woman, more machine than human. Laurel sat down beside him, putting her arms around her friend. "He did it."

"I know. They're all gone. Everyone but us."

"Who is she?"

"Nebula," the woman answered in a mechanic voice. "Thanos is my father. I'm going to hunt him down." She walked off, headed for a ship in the distance. Clearly she had a plan, or she was at least biding her time.

"C'mon, Tony. Let's go home," Laurel encouraged, getting up and walking through the portal with him.

He looked around the jet as she closed the portal, asking, "What happened?"

"They're in a state of… well, not exactly sleep, but it's close. It's a healing state, and it's cushioning their minds from everything we saw on the battlefield. It'll make it easier on them when I wake them up. I could do it for you too, if you want."

Tony shook his head, settling down into one of the empty chairs. "I'll be fine."

"You should call Pepper and find out if she's alright," Laurel suggested, going to grab them bottles of water.

Tony, still in a state of shock, numbly took out his phone, dialing. Laurel waited near the refrigerator until she heard the relief in his voice as he said hello to Pepper. Good. At least he hadn't lost everyone. They had lost a lot, but losing Peter and Pepper in one day would have completely destroyed him. She returned to sit down across from him as he talked, handing over one of the bottles with a nod. Pepper would be waiting for them when they got back to the Avengers Facility, ready to do all she could to help.


	31. Coming Home

Tony and Laurel spent the rest of the flight bringing each other up to speed on what had happened. Apparently Rocket and Groot, Thor's companions, had another half of their team. They called themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy, and had been helping to defend the Soul Stone until Thanos had arrived. They were there when he came for the time Stone, Stephen sacrificing it for Tony's life. All of them had dissolved when Thanos had completed the gauntlet, leaving Tony and Nebula stranded, without the rest of their respective teams.

"Where's Loki?" Tony asked, looking around and realizing that he wasn't among the survivors of the battle for Wakanda. "Did he stay out of the fight entirely?"

Laurel shook her head, finishing her bottle of water. "You had already left by the time I got back from the Asgardian ship… Thanos boarded us, killed most of the Asgardians, and then… Loki had the Tesseract all along. He'd been hiding it in the facility for a while. I never knew. Thanos snapped his neck for it, and then blew up the ship. We gave him a proper Asgardian funeral back here on Earth."

"I'm sorry." Tony had never been the biggest fan of Loki, but he had seen how Laurel had brought him out of the library more, how he had toned down after spending time with her. And he knew how much he had meant to her. "He didn't - you don't deserve that."

"Thanks. I can't believe... even now it doesn't feel exactly real. And I'm going to have to take over the Sanctum, aren't I? With Stephen gone, there's no one but Wong there." Laurel looked out of the window, watching as miles of sky stretched out before them. "Does this mean I'm the New York Sanctum's official Master of the Mystic Arts?"

"No shit, Sherlock, of course you are, now that Strange is gone. Sorry, that wasn't nice of me," Tony replied, watching their descent over New York. He could only process grief with anger - anger at Thanos for ripping away the people he loved, anger at the others for not being able to stop him, anger at himself for letting Peter slip through his grasp. Laurel sighed, buckling her seat belt as they descended, making a perfect landing.

Pepper was waiting for Tony, Laurel telling him to go as she woke everyone else up, one by one. Nat was first, nearly snapping her arm as Laurel pulled it away, explaining what had happened. "Calm down, it's just me. I froze everyone so you could all heal on the way home. Deep breath, there you go. You should be good to get up." Nat ran a hand through her hair, relaxing as she saw that she was on the jet. She muttered a few words of thanks before getting up and heading inside.

Rocket was easier to bring back, since he had required less magic to freeze. He made an off-handed comment about her being a witch, rubbing his eyes and hopping down from his seat. "Thanks, magic lady," he finally admitted, heading for the door. "I needed that nap."

Bruce was next, simply opening his eyes and looking around. "It was all real, wasn't it?"

"It was." Laurel took the spot next to him, saying, "We made it home. I had to cast a spell on everyone to help keep them from breaking down. But I did get Tony."

"Oh, that's good," Bruce sighed, getting up and stretching. "Are they all… frozen?"

"Yeah. I've been waking them up. Nat and Rocket - the raccoon -just went inside."

"Okay." Still kind of dazed, he headed for the door of the jet, Laurel going to wake up Rhodey. He was similarly in shock, rubbing his eyes and asking where they were. It must have been a surprise, falling asleep on the battlefield in Wakanda and waking up in the jet, back at the Avengers Facility.

Steve nearly broke down, looking to Laurel with an immense sadness in his eyes. She reached out and hugged him when he woke up, saying, "I'm so sorry. None of this is your fault. You did everything you could to stop him. You saw how surprised he was when you managed to hold him off for as long as you did. God, Steve, I'm sorry."

"I didn't just lose my best friend. You lost your fiance," he offered, hugging her back. "There was nothing you could do either. I know you've been trying not to think about it, but… there's nothing else to fight, not yet. We have to regroup and come up with a new plan. In the meantime, we can mourn for all of those we lost."

"Go on in," Laurel told him, helping him get up. "Watch out, you might get a bit dizzy on the stairs. We can talk about them later, okay? Come on over when you feel up to it."

Thor said nothing when she woke him up, just reaching out to hug her. They sat there like that for a moment before he finally broke the silence. "We are going to find a way to fix this. It started with us. It started with Asgard. And with Asgard it will end."

"We've still got Valkyrie, and the couple of Asgardians that she managed to get out," Laurel encouraged. "I think, as the Crown Princess now, that we should think about restarting the Valkyrie Program."

"We should. We need a new generation of Asgardian warriors." Thor took a deep breath, adding, "You are the Crown Princess, aren't you? You're next in line for the throne. I'm sorry you have to be. Well, I'd prefer you ruling Asgard to my brother, but at least you would have been able to control him somewhat."

"I could try. Could have tried," she corrected herself, suddenly conscious of the fact that Loki was gone, never to rule Asgard. "We should go find the others. I sent them inside as I woke them up. Figured they could use showers and a good meal."

Their group met up again in the kitchen, standing around and not saying much as Laurel and Pepper made dinner. Tony finally started pouring them all drinks, taking everyone who wasn't needed in the kitchen into the dining room to set the table and get ready for dinner. Laurel was just functioning on autopilot by that point, going through the motions of making dinner and telling the story of what had happened to Pepper, who had been in the facility for the majority of the day and just learned about the mass disappearances on the news.

Dinner itself was quiet, everyone focusing on shoveling food in their mouths in order to avoid thinking about what had happened in Wakanda. "I'm moving," Laurel announced, breaking the silence at the table. "Wong is going to need someone at the Sanctum, and I'm the only one they've got. But I'll still be around to help undo all of this. They're going to need a protector, though."

"It's a good idea," Steve agreed, passing Pepper the salt. "We should all take some time to -"

"Acknowledge what we lost," Nat said, finishing his sentence for him. She stood up, looking around the table as she lifted her glass. "To Bucky, Sam, Vision and Wanda, Peter, T'Challa, and Stephen Strange. And to Loki."

"Gamora, Star-Lord, Mantis, Groot, and Drax," Rocket added, climbing up onto his chair to raise his glass. He had lost his entire family, everyone who he had once roamed the galaxy with.

Laurel stood too. "And to Heimdall, the guardian of the Bifrost. And to us, who they left behind." They all drank, sitting down again. The atmosphere relaxed, everyone starting to talk and share memories of those they had lost, getting to know the people - and the raccoon - who they hadn't met before. When dinner was over, Laurel and Pepper put everything away, storing leftovers in the fridge and getting the dishwasher started before they went their separate ways.

There was no time to sit and relax, Laurel instead going to pack her things. She wanted to bring the first boxes to the Sanctum Sanctorum in the morning. Wong would be there for now, but the threats never stopped. She and Wong would have to cobble together a training program and figure out how to monitor the threats to the universe. And with Stephen gone, they had to find the new Sorcerer Supreme. So Laurel spent her time boxing up her clothes, folding things and wrapping them up.

The hardest part was taking down all of the pictures that she had put up in frames or stuck to the walls. All of the pictures of their big Avengers family spending holidays together, on movie nights, or out for shawarma after a battle. All of the pictures of them just living their lives - Thor in reindeer antlers at Christmas, Steve doubled over in laughter over a board game, Tony and Bruce in the lab together, standing behind a complex piece of equipment, Peter and Nat carefully balanced in the training rooms. Her and Stephen training back at the Sanctum, Wong trying to figure out how to set the self-timer on the camera to get a picture of all of them together. She'd decorated with pictures of her friends and family, the people she spent almost all of her time with. And now so many of them were gone.

Then there were the pictures of her and Loki. Them laying around in the library - Thor had taken that one, coming up on them by surprise. Loki absolutely beaming in the northern lights that he loved to have up in the sky. The two of them on New Asgard, dressed up for a ball. The picture that Tony had taken of them laying on the couch in their pajamas, having fallen asleep watching a movie late one night. She sat at her small kitchen table rifling through them all, a knock jolting her out of the trance that she had fallen into. "Come in!" she called, wading through the piles of boxes around her to find Steve walking in with two cups of tea.

"Here." He handed one of the mugs over, taking a seat at the table. "I can help you move tomorrow, if you want."

"Thanks. How are you doing?"

"I'm… doing," he sighed. "Looks like you are too."

"Yeah, pretty much. I hate this." She took a sip of her tea, saying, "If it had been something natural, I would get it. But they weren't… it wasn't their time to go. This was never supposed to happen. Thanos was never supposed to happen. And how is he going to be satisfied with all of that? Having all of that power and just stepping back? How can he be okay?"

"I don't know. But I do know that in times like these, we need our friends more than ever."

Laurel smiled, reaching for his hand across the table. She gave it a squeeze, passing over a photo of the two of them taken at a press conference. "Do you remember that night, right after we all went down to Brighton Beach? We were sunburnt as all hell, and the press loved it. I think I've got another one here somewhere..." They spent the next hour leafing through photos, Steve going to get some of his own to show her, pictures from when he and Bucky were young, from when they were in the war together. They packed and told stories, trying to remember the best things about the people they had lost, all of the little memories that slipped away over time but bubbled to the surface when they were flipping though photo albums or telling other stories. Keeping their memories alive was the first step, the first step in trying to bring them back, the first step in stopping Thanos once and for all.


	32. The Sanctum Sanctorum

Wong had news for her when Laurel arrived the next day. She and Steve didn't see him at first, but when she came back a little while later with a second car full of boxes, he appeared at the door, helping them carry things inside. He grabbed a box from the trunk of the car, following them upstairs and casually telling her that, "You are the new Sorcerer Supreme."

"What?" Laurel asked, setting a box down on her bed. "How? Why would I be the next Sorcerer Supreme? Shouldn't it be... you? Why not you? You know so much more about the Mystic Arts than I do, and you know how the Sanctum is supposed to be run."

"With Stephen Strange gone, you've become the new Master of this Sanctum. You are also the most powerful Master, and the most powerful sorcerer on Earth, since you have both the Mystic Arts and Asgardian magic in your arsenal," Wong explained, summoning a chair for her desk.

"I don't know the first thing about being the Sorcerer Supreme," she objected. "I have no clue how to defend the entire dimension, or even how to protect the Earth…"

"We do this together," Wong resolved, explaining his idea as Steve brought in another couple of boxes. "You will be the acting Sorcerer Supreme, but you will need someone to help you, and to organize the training program for more initiates. Someone needs to be here to hold down the fort when you are off on missions, and you are going to need someone with more experience running things. So we do this together, as a team."

Laurel nodded, sitting down on the bed to think. "We run this place as a team, we fight as a team… there's no way any of us can be divided any more." She looked to Steve, knowing that he and Tony had once split the Avengers apart. "We can't afford any more infighting, not with Thanos out there."

She brought Steve home a little while later, returning to the Sanctum to start unpacking. Wong was down in the library, busy indexing the books that she had brought with her and those that Stephen had left out. It was fairly quiet, just like it had been when the two other trainees had left for their assignments around the world. So she put on some music, starting to take things out of boxes.

Her room was, at one point, the attic of the building that the Sanctum had taken over, but it was the best room in the place, at least according to her. There was plenty of space, enough for a full bathroom and a walk-in closet, plus a bay window that looked out over the street. If she and Loki had been presiding over the Sanctum, it would have been a perfect space for them. As she hung things up in the closet, she thought of all of the times they had gotten dressed up for galas and press conferences together, all of the times that Loki had watched her putting her makeup on in the mirror before heading out to smile in front of dozens of cameras. Even when he wasn't going with her, he would hover around and watch as she got ready, invariably telling her how nice she looked. Sometimes, when he was bored and restless, not wanting to sit down to read, he would tell her to find a dress and meet him down in the library, where he would find some old records and spin her around the aisles like a crowded dance floor. They would collapse into their chairs, laughing at how silly they must have seemed, but still having a great time.

There was a knock on the door as she was setting things up in the bathroom, Wong coming to drop off some lunch. He had run out to the deli down the street and come back with sandwiches. The two of them took a break from their work, sitting down to eat in the dining room on the ground floor. It had once hosted the five of them - Stephen, Wong, and their three trainees, plus whatever guests came by - but now it was just the two of them, everyone else being split up across continents, and Stephen having disappeared entirely.

After lunch, Laurel went back to unpacking, Wong going out for groceries and to run a couple of other errands - all of the basic things that helped to keep the Sanctum running. She began unpacking her picture frames, hanging them on the walls and reminiscing. Balancing on a chair that she had summoned from the kitchen, Laurel was busy trying to steady a picture frame when Thor walked in, knocking on the open door. "Hey. I came by to see how you were getting along here. Why aren't you doing that with a spell? Wouldn't it be easier?"

"You know, it would," Laurel laughed, getting down from her chair and levitating the frame into place. "There we go. Thanks. It's been a process, but I'm almost settled in." She turned to see Thor leaning on the doorframe. "Okay, not well. I miss him," she admitted, inviting him to take a seat as she summoned another chair. "There has to be a way to get some answers. I think I'm going to go to Jotunheim."

"Jotunheim?" Thor asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I want to find out more than I can get from you. I want to find out where he came from, like I wanted to learn a lot about Asgard. I just want answers to questions that I don't quite know how to ask yet," Laurel sighed. "But I want to take some time here first, to get used to what I'll have to do as the new Sorcerer Supreme and to get back into the swing of things. I want to at least get the training program up and running for Wong before I go on some sort of quest."

Thor thought for a second, telling her that, "He's faked his death before, but this feels different. I hate to admit it, but it does feel like he's gone this time. He's really in Valhalla. I had a dream about it last night, you know. It seemed so real."

"Then I'll go to Valhalla myself to be sure," she resolved, continuing to unpack as she outlined her plan. "First I'll get things together here, and then I want to go to Jotunheim, since I've already been to Asgard. Well, as close to Asgard as I can get. And then I'll figure out how to go to Valhalla."

"I don't know if it can be done," Thor confessed, shaking his head and watching her levitate more picture frames into place. "Traveling between the Nine Realms is one thing, but Valhalla is completely separate, almost like a bubble outside of our dimension. Besides, it is the realm of the dead. I don't think a goddess could survive there for long, even if you could make it."

"I have to do some reading, but there has to be a way. I'm going to find a way to do it." She was set in her decision, Thor just hoping that she would realize the foolishness of it before she got into real trouble. "Now do you want to stay for dinner? Wong and I are cooking."

After dinner, Laurel finished her unpacking, laying back on her bed and staring at the full moon that glowed outside of her window. It illuminated the room enough that she really didn't need to turn the lights on, so she didn't bother. Instead she lay there, staring out at the stars. Somehow, somewhere, there had to be a way to get to Valhalla and find out for sure if he was there. But first, Jotunheim. Laurel sat up, throwing a shower of sparks into the air. They materialized into a human form, condensing until they had taken a familiar shape.

He couldn't reply, but Laurel looked to him as if she was having an actual conversation. "I'm going to Jotunheim to find out what I can about you. I've already found out what I can from Asgard and from you, but I feel like there's something… I don't know what it is, but I feel like I need to go to Jotunheim for myself. Then I'll find a way to get to Valhalla. There's got to be a way, I just know it. Wong might know, actually. One of the books around here should have something about it. I can still get digital copies of all of the books in Tony's library. They might have something too."

The image of Loki just stood there blinking at her. It couldn't consciously reply, but it was a good sounding board that wouldn't try to contradict her or tell her that her ideas were "absolutely insane. You'll get yourself killed before you end up getting to Valhalla." Thor was not too pleased when she tried to convince him that it was a good idea. But he did have the future of Asgard to think about. There were so few of them left, so few Asgardians and even fewer royals. So keeping themselves alive was a priority for their king.

"Your brother thinks it's a harebrained idea that I can't get far with. That I won't get far with. I don't know what I'll do when it comes time to go to Valhalla, but I don't think he'll get to find out about it until I'm back." She sighed, waving her hand and dissolving the image made of sparks. "You shouldn't do that. You know it's not good for you to keep trying to make more images of him, to bring him halfway back… Don't do it, Laurel."

By the time she laid down to go to sleep, she was nearly exhausted, having spent her entire day moving and unpacking. It was a great feeling, climbing into a new bed with clean sheets. It was one of the simple joys in life, and one of the things that she missed the most when she was away on a mission. Sleeping on the jet wasn't bad, but it was nothing compared to having a real bed. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

 _Loki sat at the end of the bed, quietly playing with a ball of light, tossing it up and down as she slept. Laurel sat up, yawning and looking at him in confusion. "How did you get in here? We've got this place so secure a mouse couldn't get in without us knowing about it."_

" _I walked in the door," Loki shrugged, snapping his fingers and making the ball of light disappear. He came to lay down beside her, wrapping his arms around her tightly. He held onto her and admitted, "I don't want to let go of you, not ever. I don't know why I ever did."_

" _I don't know why you ever would," she laughed, laying her head on his shoulder. No matter how happy he made her, though, something still felt off. He looked like Loki. He felt like Loki. He smelled like Loki. He talked like Loki. But something still felt different, something she couldn't place her finger on. . "Wait…"_

" _What's wrong, darling?" His eyes were full of concern, Loki wanting to make everything alright. He knew that he had caused her so much heartache in the past, and was constantly striving to make up for it. "Have I said something?"_

" _You're not real, are you? This has got to be a dream."_

 _He smiled sadly, planting a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Even if it is a dream, would it be any less real?"_


	33. Jotunheim

Many months had gone by since Laurel first moved into the Sanctum Sanctorum, becoming its Master and the Sorcerer Supreme. Together, she and Wong had brought in a class of students, starting to train them in the Mystic Arts and in as much Asgardian magic as she thought they could handle. It wasn't a lot, but they could do simple Asgardian spells without taxing themselves too much. Laurel herself had learned more Asgardian magic, realizing how much more she was able to flex her muscles as a goddess.

Summer had turned to fall, and then to winter as she and Wong brought up this new class of students. The Sanctum was always bustling now, the once-quiet hallways filled with cheerful conversations and the training rooms once again noisy as their students practiced spells in the air or on practice dummies. They would all take turns making dinner, bringing together flavorful recipes from all over the world. There was never a night when the dinner table wasn't almost full, only one or two people running late from the practice rooms or being out for various reasons. They had successfully turned the Sanctum into a school that seemed like it would be producing some extremely adept students.

One night, after dinner, Laurel stood in her room, wearing the fluffiest coat that she had. She'd layered herself in sweaters and scarves, grabbing two pairs of gloves from the closet before opening a portal that threw snow onto her floor. Stepping through the portal, she realized that she had shown up in the middle of what seemed to be a castle made almost completely out of ice. "Stop right there!"

Slowly, she turned around, holding her hands up. Four guards had spears pointed at her, looking down at her. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

She looked up into their red eyes, trying to stay calm. "I'm Laurel, Laurel Reid. Princess of Asgard, Goddess of Loyalty and Fidelity, the Sorcerer Supreme, and a Master of the Mystic Arts."

"What are you doing here, girl? You seem to be a bit lost," sneered one of the guards, edging closer with her spear. "Asgardians aren't welcome here."

"I would like to speak to your king," Laurel told them boldly.

"Good luck, my dear. There's a cell in our prison for you, surely."

It was time for her to drop the bombshell that she had been holding back for the right time. "Loki is dead."

"What did you say?" the lead guard pressed, getting even closer, as if she was threatening her. "What did you say, girl?"

"Loki is dead," she repeated, looking between them. "Last year, when half of your people disappeared… it was because the Infinity Stones had been gathered and used against the universe. Loki was killed by the man who brought them together. I am on a quest for answers."

"Who are you?" They all regarded her suspiciously, wondering if they could trust the word of this woman who had just appeared in their palace.

She took off the two layers of gloves on her left hand, holding it up and showing them the ring that had long ago been Frigga's. "I was going to be his wife."

The group of guards looked to each other, deciding to march her down to the throne room as she had demanded. There they stopped her in front of two Frost Giants sitting on equal thrones, both of whom regarded her with curiosity. "Who do we have here?" one of them asked, leaning forward to get a better look at the tiny human in front of them. "She's so small. And so bundled up."

"She says she was engaged to Loki," a guard told them, the two kings scoffing and sharing a couple of words in a language that she couldn't understand.

"Your Majesties, my name is Laurel Reid. I'm the Crown Princess of Asgard, the Asgardian Goddess of Loyalty and Fidelity, the current Sorcerer Supreme, and a Master of the Mystic Arts." She could see her breath as she spoke, realizing how cold it was even in the throne room. "Loki and I were engaged to be married before he was killed by the man who massacred half of the universe. I've come here looking for help and for answers about him - about Loki. I've already found out all I could from Asgard."

"Well, then," the other king sneered, crossing his arms. "You come to us looking for answers, after your people - your fiance - brought us so much ruin? After he killed our father? After he started a war between our people and those of Asgard?"

"Your father…" Laurel looked between the two of them, realizing for the first time how much the two of them looked like Loki in his true Jotun form. They must have been related to him, but it seemed so impossible. They were giants, after all.

"King Laufey was killed by Loki, leaving his sons, Byleistr and Helblindi, to take the throne," the closest guard explained. "Loki was their brother, and the one who killed their father, started a war, and helped to keep one of our most treasured relics secured on Asgard."

Laurel nodded, telling them that, "I'm sorry. I would have told him not to… not to have lashed out at your father like that. But I know how he felt. He had been rejected by your father as a baby, left to die during the war with Asgard. He would have died, had Odin not taken him in. But then Odin too mistreated him, used him as a pawn to try to bring peace between the realms. He never did have much of a true place in either realm. It still doesn't excuse what he did, but he isn't - wasn't - the complete villain that your history paints him as."

Regarding her with suspicion, Byleistr and Helblindi whispered to each other for a moment or two before turning to her and inviting her to stay for a feast. "We would like to get to know the woman who dared to come here. It really was quite the risk, but… you are a Midgardian, aren't you?" Byleistr asked, raising an eyebrow. "A lot more misplaced than I first thought."

Helblindi agreed, asking how a Midgardian like her had gotten to Asgard and then to Jotunheim. "Well, the story had better wait for dinner. It is nearly time. You must tell us there, Midgardian."

Laurel, having already eaten back at the Sanctum, spent most of her time at their feast drinking and talking with them, explaining how she had managed to travel between the realms. She had to start all the way back with when she trained under Stephen Strange, when she first mastered the Mystic Arts. And then how she had met Loki, how they had gotten engaged, how she had found herself on New Asgard, and how she had become a goddess. That brought her to the battle onboard the _Statesman,_ and then to the Battle of Wakanda, as it had become known. Byleistr and Helblindi listened without interrupting, letting Laurel finish her story before asking dozens of questions.

As it turned out, they were a lot more accepting of this Midgardian who had come to their realm when they realized that she had come without a pressing mission. She just wanted to learn about the place loki had left behind and tried to blot out from his life. She wanted to understand it, to get to know the culture that he had sworn off and the people that he had denied. The giants all asked questions about Midgard, about what life was like there and what Midgardians thought of them, over a thousand years since they had tried to invade. More than willing to answer their questions, Laurel told them all about Midgard, about how she had once been a normal Midgardian before she got involved with the research being done in Sokovia. They asked questions about everything, curious about the girl who had ventured all of this way in search of answers.

Over dessert, Laurel brought up the idea that she had had for a long time, one that she needed their help with even more than finding out more about where Loki had come from. "Is there any way I can get to Valhalla?"

"You would need some powerful magic, much more powerful than what one human can do on their own," Helblindi told her, shaking his head at the idea. "I would recommend some sort of magical artifact, like the Casket of Ancient Winters, if we had it here."

"I would have brought it to you if it had survived Asgard," Laurel sighed, looking between the two brothers. "When Asgard was destroyed, the Casket went with it. None of the relics in the Asgardian vaults survived Hela. I'm sorry." She had spent some time filling them on on the destruction of Asgard and the rise of Thanos, how he had sacked the Asgardian ship, how Valkyrie had started a small Asgardian colony in Norway, how they had gathered their forces and tried to stop Thanos, all to no avail.

"Either way," Byleistr said, refilling his glass, "you will need something far more powerful than your own magic. The spells you can do are nothing up against what stands between you and Valhalla. It is not of this realm, not of this dimension at all. Besides, you could be creating a sort of disorder that is hard to recover from, and you've already failed at preventing disorder."

"We could also use your help, when it comes time to take on Thanos. I know your people aren't as powerful as you once were, when you had the Casket, but any help would be nice," she brought up, playing ambassador from her realm. "Anything would help, since he's taken so much from us already. We're all more powerful together."

The kings considered her proposal, finally agreeing that they would help when it came time to attack Thanos and his followers. For now, though, they were content with biding their time and lying in wait. It was more than Laurel could have asked for.

Laurel left Jotunheim with the promise that they would be available to help take on Thanos, and with more of an understanding of the place that Loki had rejected. The Jotun kings had learned a lot more about Asgard and about life on Midgard, still marveling at the woman who had journeyed across the Nine Realms just to find out more about them and to start recruiting an army to defeat Thanos once and for all.

Stepping back into the Sanctum and closing the portal, she was incredibly glad to be in the warm air again. She had felt so cold for so long that she nearly forgot what it felt like to be warm. But a hot shower and a cup of tea later, she had come up with a new idea. Jotunheim and Asgard were not the only places that Loki had spent his time. He'd also spent a chunk of his life on Sakaar, living in luxury while his brother was forced to compete in tournaments against the Hulk, of all people. _Today Jotunheim, tomorrow Sakaar. And then find a way to get to Valhalla._

For now, though, Laurel was content with falling asleep in the (thankfully much warmer) Sanctum, resolving to go to Sakaar the next night after dinner. After all, Wong and the trainees didn't need to know about her adventures quite yet. Wong wouldn't approve of her hopping all over the Nine Realms while she was meant to be coming up with new training programs, and their students would just want to follow her and learn how to do it. It would stay a secret, at least for now. Well, maybe Thor could be trusted with it. Loki was his brother, after all... _Tell Thor in the morning. He might want to come with you. Well, he didn't have the best time on Sakaar. But maybe he'll at least be able to help you figure out how to get to Valhalla._


	34. The Grandmaster

Sakaar had undergone a revolution, but after the dust had settled, it had fallen back into its old ways. Laurel stepped right into a throne room, looking around to see an imposing woman with her weapon drawn, coming towards her while an older man was trying to play music, although he sounded more like a one-man techno band than an actual DJ. "Who are you? Where do you come from?"

"Let her go, Topaz, she's just an Earthling. What are you doing here, my dear?" the man asked in a calm voice, coming up to inspect her. "Ooh, look inside that brilliant brain of yours! Focused on someone, are we? Someone quite important to you. A lover? A husband? A wife?"

"My name is Laurel. I'm the Sorcerer Supreme, a Master of the Mystic Arts, the Goddess of Loyalty and Fidelity, and a Princess of Asgard," she told him with authority, taking a step back as he got closer. "And yes, there is someone weighing on my mind."

"Hmm, well then, Princess, I'm not going to melt you. I'm the Grandmaster, the head-honcho around these parts. But I think I'll leave you alive for now. Curious… you really do have a mission, my goodness! You're bent on revenge. Not gonna get in your way." Somehow, he could peer into her mind, not reading it totally but knowing just enough to put the details together.

"Thanks, I guess," Laurel frowned, looking at the guard folding her arms behind him. The woman was still glaring at her with an expression of distrust. She couldn't blame her - someone showing up in the middle of the throne room, coming in through a portal, didn't happen every day, and it would have to require some powerful magic to do. "I'm here looking for answers, and I know you'll be able to offer some."

"Princess of Asgard… there are only two Asgardian royal children, aren't there?" he thought out loud, pacing in a circle around her. "You look a little young to be another child. And a little too human. Besides, Odin and Frigga aren't there any more, are they? So who could you be? Ah, I see an engagement ring. No wedding ring though, which is even more curious."

Laurel nodded, turning to face him and force the Grandmaster to look her in the eye. "I was engaged to one of the princes, before he was killed by Thanos. Now I know he spent some time here, so I've come to see what Sakaar is like and if it will answer some things for me."

The Grandmaster nodded, determining, "You've got a bit of an attitude on you, but you're incredibly patient. Not afraid of being melted, used to hopping through portals like the one you opened up over there," he jerked his thumb towards where the portal was still spinning, a couple of sparks coming off of it as he talked, "and pretty smart too. You could've done with either one…"

"Loki's dead." She crossed her arms, waiting for a reaction from the man. "He was murdered by Thanos, the man responsible for killing half of the universe. Loki's dead, and I'm -"

"Ooh, that's a shame," the Grandmaster sighed. "Loki was a good time. He was quite -"

Laurel flexed her magic muscles a bit, reminding him that she could read minds much better than he was able to. "You don't really need to announce that to your entire… should I call it a court? Well, I'm sure they already know the details, but I'd prefer you not to rehash them with everyone. Frankly, it's not something I need to know. He got what he wanted, keeping himself in your favor. But now he's dead, and I'm trying to find out more about the places he lived, the places he knew before me. And, if you want, I'm trying to get people to be at the ready for when we take on Thanos once and for all."

"You want to find out about Sakaar? Well, you can be the guest of honor at tonight's Contest of Champions."

"Contest of Champions?" Laurel asked, raising an eyebrow. "What sort of contest? What sort of champions?"

"Grab a drink and follow me. It's nearly time to get the party started," the Grandmaster smiled, letting her go over to the bar before he led the way out of the throne room. They passed into a series of tunnels, which led them to an arena bigger than any that she had seen before. The two of them were up in a balcony that overlooked the entire arena.

As the Grandmaster gave his introductory speech, Laurel marveled at the size of the crowd. Nearly every seat was filled with people and other beings cheering and waving at the holographic projection of himself that the Grandmaster had put up. "What is a Contest of Champions?" she asked as he came back and sat next to her.

"My current champion fights against those in the dungeons, out on the main stage for all the world to see," he explained, watching as a monstrous creature made of rock emerged from below the arena. It was joined by a six-armed being that reminded Laurel of a giant moth on legs. "Whoever wins becomes - or remains - the champion and goes on to fight another day."

"How did this all start?" She took a sip of her drink, watching as the two began to fight in the middle of the arena. The crowd was already going wild, cheering for the Grandmaster's champion as he rushed into the fight.

The Grandmaster reached for his drink, telling her that, "Sakaar is at the edge of what is known and what remains unknown. I created it as a place to collect all sorts of lost things and give them a place, a reason for being. The Contest keeps them tied together, even though they come from all over the universe. I keep it all in balance. Loki... dear Loki loved it here. This is the kind of place where people like him can thrive." He looked off into the distance, trying to seem like he was making a point.

Laurel didn't buy it. "I'm sure, but doesn't it get kind of meaningless if you're just having people cater to whatever you want? You've got to have something to do around here other than orchestrating these bloodbaths and eating and drinking until you have to throw up. There's got to be more to it than constant partying."

"Darling, you get used to it. Partying is a job," the Grandmaster replied, gesturing or another drink. "Everyone here has their role, and this is mine. It could be yours too, if you want." He looked over at her, trying to gauge her reaction. "And friend of Loki's is a friend of mine. He's considered a war criminal here now, but I do have a certain soft spot for him."

Rolling her eyes, Laurel declined the offer. "I'm only here for a little while. I've got things to do, more important things than -" She was interrupted by a roar from the crowd, the rock creature having ripped off one of the oversized moth's legs. "I have more important things to do than watching sport killings like this. I'm trying to find out everything I can about Loki's life, the places he's lived, all of that. And I'm trying to get people to help me fight Thanos when the time is right. We've all lost someone because of him."

"Oh, come on!" the Grandmaster yelled, jumping to his feet as the rock creature stumbled. "Come on! There we go!"

She waited until he sat back down, continuing, "There is no one in the universe that hasn't lost someone to Thanos now. I'm going to need their help. He can try to stop us. He can try to hurt us. But he can't stop the entire universe." She made a calculated decision, reaching out and putting her hand on top of his. "Please, I need your help. One day he'll come for you too. He'll come for your champions and he'll come for you. Anyone with any power threatens him, and they should use that to their advantage."

The Grandmaster raised an eyebrow at her, Laurel pressing the point even further with a look. "What do you need?"

"Just your promise that you'll be willing to send fighters or ships when the time comes." She leaned closer, smiling hopefully. "Please, I know you have the ships and the strong champions we would need to help. I know you're kind enough to help us, and I know you're a good enough man to be willing to do it. Please, Grandmaster. If not for me, then for the man we both lost."

He bit his lip, acquiescing. "Alright. If you come to need my help, I will help you."

"Good." Laurel jumped up, ostensibly to get another drink. "Thank you." The Grandmaster sat back, going back to watching his champion fight. He glanced over at Laurel every so often, seeing that she was lazily watching as well. She had gotten what she wanted, and now she was busy taking it all in, seeing what Sakaar was like and trying to understand how Loki had spent his time there.

When Laurel said her goodbyes, the Grandmaster tried again to get her to stay. He offered her a seat in his government, although she could tell that there was no real government except for him and his enforcers. Then he offered the throne beside him, saying that Loki wouldn't have minded. Laurel denied this too. He even offered a position in his band, which she turned down before telling him to enjoy his next Contest of Champions, stepping through her portal, and disappearing back to the Sanctum.

In the morning, she had to go to the Avengers Facility to meet with Tony. They had a bit of business to go over, figuring out training schedules for the students at the Sanctum, who were getting both an education in the Mystic Arts and training with the remaining Avengers. There were now six students, who would train with them in pairs so they could get specialized attention. It took a bit of organizing, especially since they had to push off training if a mission came up, but eventually they were able to put together a schedule.

Thor came over to say hi while Laurel was talking to Steve, telling him about her adventures on Sakaar. He had just come from a visit to Asgard, which had settled down into a small community in northern Norway, an uninhabited place that they would not be noticed in. Laurel had lent them some of her magic, masking the town so no one but the Asgardians could find it, unless someone was specifically told where the new town of Asgard was. It was almost like the shielding around Wakanda, but with Asgardian magic instead of technological advancements. "They have been asking about you," he told her, taking a seat. "They want to see their princess. They even named a road after you."

"That's so sweet," Laurel smiled, making space for him on the sofa. "I'll have to visit them soon. I haven't been in a while. You know, I just got back from Sakaar last night… the Grandmaster is something, isn't he?"

"That he is," Thor nodded. "Not planning on going back to Sakaar any time soon. Loki had a better time there than I did, but… well, I found a few people there who helped us stop our sister. The Grandmaster was a very strange man, to say the least. Then there's his whole contest, which is absolutely brutal. I'm glad I took so many people with me when I left."


	35. It's Just a Dream

"I know what you've been doing." Wong had appeared in the Sanctum's library while Laurel was shelving a stack of books. "I know what you've been doing, reading all of these books. If you try to visit Valhalla, you would be breaking the natural order of things, bringing a living person into the realm of the dead. The business of the dead stays among the dead, and the business of the living stays among the living. It is for a reason. It could kill you at best."

"And at worst?" Laurel didn't deny it at all. "What would happen then?"

"You could unleash a form of chaos not known to this world. Valhalla is not exactly in this dimension, and not exactly outside of it," Wong explained, starting to help her reshelve books. "Bringing the two together could cause souls to move between the two, unless you have a way to go between them without a portal like the ones we use. You would have to make sure they stay completely separate."

"I've been doing some reading on it already," she confessed. "Quite a lot, actually. I have some ideas."

"I know," Wong nodded as he levitated a book up to the top shelf. "I've seen what books have been taken from here. I should warn you, though, that this sort of magic shouldn't be played with lightly."

"I know," Laurel told him, sure of herself, "and I won't take it lightly. But I'm going to try. There has to be a way to do it."

Wong left her alone to research in the library for the rest of the day. Once or twice her students would come in, searching for books or coming to return things. Inevitably they would see that she was buried in her research, simply nodding a hello if she looked up. For her part, Laurel would make an effort to smile at them and wave of she noticed them coming in, but she was so absorbed in her reading that it was hard to remember to do. By the time she realized that it was late into the night, she had poured through entire shelves of books, coming to the conclusion that she had learned quite a lot, but nothing at all at the same time.

Everything she did learn had been recommended to her already - that it was going to be more dangerous than any set of spells she had ever tried, that she would need some powerful spellwork or an ancient relic to do it, that there were incalculable risks involved. The Jotuns hadn't underestimated how difficult it would be, and Wong certainly had a point about the dangers of trying to reach Valhalla. But she was bent on doing it anyway, bent on trying to at least contact the people there.

Taking a stack of books up to her room, Laurel found one of her students still awake, practicing a spell on the stairs. She watched curiously as the girl repeatedly threw herself off of the second-story landing, dropping a net of sparks below just in time to catch herself. She would vanish the net, climb the stairs, and then do it again. "You know," Laurel finally offered, scaring the girl, who had thought she was alone, "I did the same thing when I was training here. Stephen - Dr. Strange - caught me one night and told me that it would be a lot easier if I moved a mattress under the landing. You're doing well, but you're going to mess up a few times, no matter how much you practice. Especially when you start opening a portal between the landing and the floor. Get it right and you'll land where you started, but if it doesn't stay open, it's nice to have a mattress to cushion your fall."

"Thanks," the girl smiled, grimacing as they made their way up the stairs. Clearly she had already hit the ground a couple of times, not sticking the landing.

Laurel left her on the second-floor landing, continuing up the stairs until she got to her attic room. It was the middle of the night by then, everyone else having long since gone to bed. There had to be leftovers from dinner, though. She summoned some leftovers, eating as she sat in the windowsill, looking up at the moon. Conjuring an image of Loki to sit across from her, she laid out her plan. "The Book of Vishanti is the most powerful set of spells I've got. I think I'm going to warp them to get there. It'll take some work, but I have an idea of how to do it. Oh, Loki, this had better work."

She vanished the image when she was done eating, sending the paper plate she had been using up in flames. As she brushed her teeth, she went over everything she would have to do. _Find the book. Hunt down the right spells. Figure out how to warp them to get into Valhalla. And then actually pull all of this off._ The plan was simple enough, but nothing ever went exactly right, especially when dealing with cosmic matters like this.

It took her a while to settle down, but when she finally did set the books aside and turn off the lights, she fell asleep almost instantly, knowing that she would have a long day in front of her when she got up. There would be plenty of training and teaching to do, and lots to get together in the Sanctum. She'd spent some time in Asgard, and had a lot to catch up on back at the Sanctum. It had been nice visiting the Asgardians, though. They had missed her, and she had missed them.

 _Laurel got up slowly, seeing that the sunlight was already streaming into her room. The door opened, Loki coming in with a cup of tea. "How are you feeling?" He looked worried, not just because of what she was going through, but about many more long-term things. "Was she kicking you all night again?"_

" _It's alright," Laurel smiled automatically, putting her hand to her stomach as Loki came to sit down beside her. "I wish you could do something about it, you know, since you got me into this mess -"_

" _I seem to remember it being a very… mutually pleasurable evening," he grinned, kissing her on the cheek and then bending down to kiss her stomach. "I do wish I could do something to help, but you know the magic might hurt her. I don't know too much about it, and I wouldn't want to risk it. I wish my mother had taught me more, but it wasn't really the magic I needed at the time."_

" _Like I said, I'll be fine. Just a couple more weeks. I can't believe it… what are we going to tell them if she's blue? On Midgard that means they're not getting oxygen."_

" _I'll be right there to make sure no one notices," he promised. There was a bit of a pause, Loki's voice getting softer. "What if I have no idea what I'm doing?"_

 _Laurel had to laugh at that. He'd been reading parenting books for months now, researching and reading articles and scientific studies, printing all of them out and practically wallpapering the Sanctum in them. He'd annoyed her to death, trying to monitor everything she ate and everything she did. It had gotten to the point where she had had to tell him off for trying to get her to stop training with the others, even though he knew she would only sit there and supervise. If anything, he was more prepared than she was._

" _Loki, you're going to be fine. You've learned everything there is to learn about kids. You're going to be a great dad," Laurel encouraged, taking his hand._

" _What if she doesn't like me?"_

" _How could she not like you?"_

" _I don't know, what if she doesn't? Or what if she's just like me?" He had been asking these questions for the last month now, Laurel constantly having to reassure him that no matter what, things would be fine._

" _She'll like you," Laurel promised him. "And she'll have me to balance her out, don't worry."_

 _Loki sighed as Laurel gave him a kiss. "I have no idea how to be a father. Not really. It's like ice skating. You can read all about it, but you actually have to be a parent to know what in the name of Odin you're doing."_

" _Exactly. But you're going to be a great dad, because you can see the mistakes your father made. I know you'll be nothing like him. You just have to try to do better. You won't be perfect. I won't be perfect. But we're going to try to do our best, and give her the best life we can, and that's what matters. She'll have a wonderful set of parents, and an amazing uncle Thor, and a whole bunch of superheroes looking out for her. We're going to be fine," Laurel resolved as she slowly got up. "Now if you'll excuse me for a second, I've got to pee for the hundredth time already. I'll tell you what, I love her already, but I'll love her even more when this part is over." That made him smile a bit more._

 _Laurel blinked and suddenly they were sitting in the giant den of the Sanctum. She was taking up an armchair, lounging across it with a book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. "Mom! Mom, look! Mom!"_

" _Honey, Mom's busy reading," Loki's voice said. "Besides, she's used to seeing all of these colors."_

 _She looked up to see Loki tossing glowing balls of light in the air, a small girl reaching for them, trying in vain to hold the light like her dad could. Her dark hair made her look a lot more like Loki than like Laurel, but she definitely acted a lot more like her mom. She was nicer, more willing to share things with others and a lot less cunning, a lot less destructive than Loki. "Mom!"_

" _Isn't that beautiful?" Laurel smiled, setting her book down and coming over to sit on the floor with them. "Here, look." She conjured a ball of blue light, throwing it up into the air and spreading it into an aurora. They would paint them into the sky when the little girl couldn't sleep, and she loved them. The blue and silver lights danced above their heads, making all three of them smile._

 _Laurel beamed, seeing how delighted her daughter was. She was mesmerized, staring into the lights that reflected the wonder into her eyes. Loki looked to Laurel, watching his wife and his daughter, the two best things that had ever happened to him. He wished he could live in that moment forever, watching the two of them in the lights, wondering at them and all of the magic they stood for. Laurel and their daughter were a kind of magic too, at least to him._

" _Come here, honey," Loki beckoned, the little girl crawling into his lap and breaking the beautiful moment. "Now hold out your hands." She held her hands out obediently, Loki carefully setting a small orb of green light into her hands. "Can you throw it? There you go, look. That's just how I taught your mom to do it."_

 _It was Laurel's turn to watch them, smiling as she saw Loki, the man who had once wanted the entire Earth to kneel before him, now sitting on the floor and playing with his daughter, showing her how to hold onto the sparks that he could create, how to toss them up and down like regular rubber balls. None of his fears about fatherhood had come true. Their daughter was born a healthy child, an average weight and length for a Midgardian baby. She hadn't been blue either. She had grown into a playful child with a head of black curls like her father's. She hadn't shown any sort of magical talent, aside from being able to play with the orbs of light that Loki created for her. They wouldn't fizzle out like they would if Laurel didn't try to actually hold them. And she had once found her halfway freezing a glass of water, testing out whether or not she could do it. Both Laurel and Loki figured that if that was the most she could do, she had come out with the better Jotun traits, ones that wouldn't hurt her that much._

 _As she watched the two of them, Laurel noticed that she had started to cry. She wasn't sobbing, but she felt the tears rolling down her cheeks. "What's wrong, Mommy?"_

 _Loki too looked concerned, staring up at Laurel. "Nothing. I just love you two." She came over to hug them both, realizing what was wrong as she touched them. She could hug them, but not really. Not exactly like she could hug other people. They weren't real. Of course they weren't. This couldn't be real. It wasn't._

Laurel sat up in bed, tears dripping down her cheeks. There was no Loki next to her, no little girl climbing up in their bed and telling them to wake up because it was time for breakfast already. Loki was dead. There was no little girl at all. She was alone. It had only been a dream. A terribly wonderful - or a wonderfully terrible - dream.


	36. The Halls of the Dead

The Book of Vishanti was one of the most powerful relics that Stephen Strange had hidden away in the Sanctum Sanctorum. It took Laurel a while to find it, since it wasn't in the library. She figured it would have been with all of the restricted books, those that Wong kept locked up because young sorcerers were not capable of handling the magic inside of them yet. There was no forbidden magic in the Sanctum Sanctorum, but there was limited magic, magic that hey did not want their students taking on until they were ready. Of course, the book wasn't in the library at all. Laurel knew where it had to be, but she had no desire to go there.

They had all agreed on leaving Stephen's rooms the way they had been when he was dissolved by Thanos. The door had been locked, and no one had entered his quarters since then, out of respect and deference to him. But now she had to pick the lock, knowing that Stephen wouldn't have minded. It was for the greater good, the good of the entire universe if the book was as helpful as it seemed.

Stepping into the room, she kicked up a lot of dust. Laurel waved her hand, the dust all vanishing in seconds. She hadn't been in there since well before Stephen had become a victim of Thanos, well before they had had their falling-out. "If I was you," she mumbled, trying to channel Stephen, "where would I have hidden a relic like that?"

She went through the closet, through drawers full of expensive watches, and through piles of papers she found on a desk. It was a locked drawer that attracted her to a filing cabinet, one that had been stuck in a corner. With a wave of her hand, she opened the drawer, pulling out a book that looked older than most of those in the library collections. Cracking it open, she found spells written in several languages, notes written in scrawling hand sin the margins. The notes themselves looked incredibly old, like the book had passed through several generations of Sorcerer Supremes.

Sitting down on the bed, Laurel started reading. "'A Spell to Speak to the Dead', 'A Spell to Contact the Lost', 'A Spell to Move Dimensions'... this has got to be it." Sure enough, she found that, like the legend about the Book of Vishanti said, it kept expanding. No matter how many pages she turned, she would find more written on magic and spellwork in different languages, some rather new and some that had long since gone extinct.

That night, Laurel decided to try out a combination of the spells in the book. She had spent all afternoon writing and putting spells together, cobbling them into a coherent but complex spell that would require all of her focus. She was so close that she could almost feel it. Making sure to lock her door, she sat down on her own bed and began reciting the incantation that she had written herself.

It was fifteen minutes' worth of reading and spellwork, all of the motions that accompanied the spells being perfectly timed. Slowly, a sort of portal began to materialize. Unlike the regular sparks around the edges of the portals that the Masters of the Mystic Arts created, this one was a completely black circle. It was more of a void than a portal. Laurel took a deep breath, stepping into it without looking back.

She had stepped into a kind of bubble between worlds, a bubble outside of her dimension but not quite inside of Valhalla. "Well, this needs some work," she mumbled to herself, about to step out of the portal and back into the Sanctum when she was interrupted by two voices. She took another step forward, the fuzzy outlines of Odin and Frigga becoming visible.

They were sitting in a small room, having what looked like it could be late-night cups of coffee. Frigga seemed somewhat distressed, Laurel trying as hard as she could to hear what she was saying. "We should let him talk to her like we can. I know it is a lot, a whole lot of strain on our worlds, but you should see him, Odin."

"Darling, he would never stop talking to her if we let him," Odin objected. "He would break the boundaries between our two worlds if we let him try."

Frigga was insistent. "He is absolutely miserable here. He keeps isolating himself in that library. He hardly comes to see the gardens, or comes out to feast with us, let alone going out into the rest of Valhalla. Even if we could just let him see her, let him know she is still doing well…"

Odin shook his head. "I wish I could allow it, but it would only hurt him more, seeing what he once had, but not being able to touch it. Seeing her still in mourning, trying to find a way to contact him… it would not be right."

"You should have seen him," Frigga sighed, getting up and starting to pace. "He was out on the terrace… he'd created an image of her out of light. They were dancing, darling. To some old Midgardian song. He would spin her around and smile to himself, and send showers of sparkles everywhere as they moved. It was the only time I've seen him happy here. When the song ended, she disappeared, and he looked just as miserable as before. He needs to be able to see her, to know that she's alright."

Odin was adamantly against the idea, turning to look at his wife as she walked to the window. "It would crush him. You have seen her, you have seen what she keeps trying to do. Every time I look in on her, she is busy trying to find a way to contact him. If he sees that she keeps getting so close, he will try to bring the two dimensions together, and would inadvertently cause a catastrophe. He is still young and naive, and you know he would not go about it properly. It is a very careful balance of spellwork, one he cannot handle."

For her part, Frigga had taught him a lot of the magic he would need to cross between worlds. But deep down, she knew that Loki would try to do the work as quickly as he could. He would cut corners for this Midgardian girl, and if he messed up, he would end up mixing Valhalla and Midgard together, two worlds that, if they collided, could bring about something similar to Ragnarok, a complete destruction of one or both of them. "He has so long to wait," she frowned. "But he will have to. I am going to go check up on him, and then I do believe I should get some rest."

As Frigga moved towards the door, Laurel followed, finding that she could move around alright in Valhalla, seeing everything, even if she could not be seen or heard. She followed her down the hall, down a flight of stairs, and through several magnificent archways until they reached a heavy wooden door. Frigga knocked twice before walking in, finding Loki reading a book out on the terrace by the light of the moon. He looked up, seeing that it was his mother. A tiny bit of the hope in his eyes died out. Every time someone walked in, he hoped beyond hope, for a brief second, that it would be Laurel. It never would be, but he had hoped. "Good evening, Mother."

"How are you, dear?" she asked, leaning on the doorframe. "You should get some rest. Staying up this late will do you no good."

Loki closed his book with a sigh, confessing that, "I haven't been able to sleep properly. You know that. I miss her. Terribly. It hurts to even think about her, but it's a horrible heartache if I don't. I know I have to wait, but… I wish I could see her one more time, just to say goodbye. She'll be here soon enough. I can wait fifty, sixty years. But it's her entire life."

Frigga frowned, reminding him that, "Dear, she is a goddess. It will be a lot longer than that. It will take her longer to get here."

"Oh." Loki's shoulders visibly sunk, his mother coming to put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, darling. I wish you could talk to her too. But she understands that you sacrificed yourself for her. She understands that you wish you could have had more time with her, and she must know how much you love her, even now. I can feel it, even here. I am the Goddess of Marriage, after all," she said, hoping that it would offer some sort of comfort.

"You're right. I should be getting some sleep." That was Frigga's cue to leave, so she said goodnight, kissing her son on the top of her head before taking her leave. Loki reamined out on the terrace, staring up at the moon. Laurel moved forward, coming to stand next to him. "I love you," he mouthed, still staring up at the stars. "I miss you, and I wish I could say goodbye. Goodnight, Laurel." It sounded like he said the same goodnight, the same goodbye, every night before he went to bed.

Laurel reached out, putting her hand over his, even though she knew he couldn't tell that she was there. For a fleeting second, he looked over to her, sure that he had felt something. "I miss you too. I love you so much," she whispered, Loki looking away. It must have been the wind. She couldn't really talk to him, no matter how much she wanted to. She couldn't reach out and hold him, no matter how sad he looked, no matter how much it broke her heart not to be able to let him know that she was there. "I'll find a way to get here. I'll find a way, I promise."

She had to leave him as he went inside, since the spell could only hold for so long. Appearing back in her own room, she realized that she had only been gone for a few minutes, even though it had been a lot longer in Valhalla. She would need Odin or Frigga's blessing to remain there for longer. And these spells would need some work, but they could get her to Valhalla. There was hope for sure. If only she could figure out how to completely cross into the halls of the dead and come back out alive.

* * *

A.N.: Sorry if my updates aren't as regular as they usually are this week... I'm going on vacation, and I won't have a lot of time to write. But I've got some great things in store, so stick around!


	37. A Living Girl in Valhalla

"Your Majesties," panted a servant, having run in from the hall, "there is a real living girl here. I swear to you, she's a real, living human, from Midgard."

Odin and Frigga exchanged a look, curiously asking him to bring the girl in. Laurel was led in by a group of guards, Frigga smiling and telling them to drop their weapons. "You came all of the way here…" She stepped forward, telling Laurel not to bother bowing, since they were nearly family, after all. Reaching out to touch her, she was surprised at how real the girl felt, how alive. "You came all of the way here to make sure he made it."

"Yes," Laurel nodded, letting Frigga hug her. Odin was less friendly, but still impressed that she had made the journey. "It took the better part of two years, but I found a way. I invented my own spells to get here, and… well, it took a long time to test them out. The last time I tried, I managed to be able to see into Valhalla, but not actually interact with anyone here."

"A living woman in Valhalla," Odin nodded, thinking it all over. "Well, it is good to finally meet you, my dear." He came to give her a hug, adding, "Loki has told us so much about you."

"He really does talk about you almost nonstop," Frigga beamed, looking her over. "He told us all about how the two of you met, how you've taught him so much about Midgard, how… I wish you could have seen him ask for our blessing to marry you. I do not think I have ever seen him that excited, that nervous, that… he loves you beyond measure."

Laurel, while tremendously glad that she was finally able to meet the in-laws that she had heard so much about, was still anxious to see Loki himself. "Is he here? In the palace, I mean? May I see him?"

"Of course." Frigga and Odin led her to the vast Valhallan libraries, where Loki was draped in an armchair reading. "Stay here for a moment," she whispered, stopping Laurel at the door. Laurel peered in, watching as they entered.

"Mother. Father," he acknowledged them as they walked in, looking between his parents and raising an eyebrow. They rarely came to find him together. "What's going on? You look like we have something to discuss."

"That we do," Odin said gruffly, crossing his arms. "You, my poor son, have had the misfortune of falling in love with a Midgardian woman who has since become a goddess. You have also had the misfortune of finding one of the most persevering, most stubborn women in all of the Nine Realms."

"What your father is trying to say, dear, is that we know it has not been easy for you, being trapped here without her. We did some thinking, and… well, we have a gift for you." Frigga smiled, Loki becoming even more sure that it was just another distraction, something meant to cheer him up for a few years before he settled back into the monotony that Valhalla had been so far. Not only did Laurel lose him, but he had also lost her. It pained him terribly, and he had been spending months lethargically reading and walking around the palace with no real direction in mind.

That was Laurel's cue. She took a deep breath, stepping out from behind the massive oak door. Loki dropped his book in his chair, springing to his feet and rushing over to her. He stopped short and stood a foot or so back, marveling at the fact that she was before him. "What did you do?" He turned back to his parents, wheeling around to ask, "What did you do? She's not real. She can't be real."

"I am," Laurel smiled, coming over to wrap her arms around him. He was a bit cold (what else could you expect from the dead?), but he still felt like Loki. Gingerly, he reached out and hugged her back. "I'm just as real as you are. Are you real?"

"Of course I'm real."

"Prove it," she dared, Loki not wanting to let go of her. "Prove it to me."

"You've got a birthmark on one of your ribs, right below -"

"Okay, I believe you," she laughed, Loki continuing to talk.

He buried his face in her hair, whispering, "You've also got a little scar just on the groove of your hip, where my mouth fits perfectly -"

"Not in front of your parents," Laurel giggled. It was laughable, really. He was over a thousand years old, and still... "Oh, it's so good to see you again. You don't know how much I missed you."

"Are you real?" he asked, standing back for a moment to stare at her. "Please tell me you're real. Please tell me you aren't some sort of hyper-realistic thing that my mother dreamed up." Laurel shook her head, leaning in to kiss him. "That felt pretty real."

"You've got terrible scars all up and down your back. You've got one in the crook of your elbow where they kept injecting you with things in the Asgardian dungeons. You're deathly handsome even when you're blue," she listed. "You stay up late at night reading, and when you think I'm asleep you'll read out loud to me too. You're rather fond of being referred to by your royal titles." She had to punctuate the last one with a smirk, a slow smile spreading over Loki's face.

"You are real," he determined, pulling her closer. As he held onto his fiancee, he looked to his parents, saying, "Thank you. Thank you for bringing her here."

"She brought herself here," Frigga told him, Odin nodding along. "You have taught quite the sorceress here."

Loki looked down at Laurel, who just shrugged. "You found a way to get to Valhalla from Midgard? That's… that's almost impossible, even for a goddess. How?"

"I took an old book - the Book of Vishanti, it's an ancient magical relic form Midgard - and adapted the spells until I got one massive ritual that led me here," Laurel explained. She didn't want to see the joy die from his eyes, but she had to tell him the rest. "The spell makes the boundaries between the two worlds incredibly unstable. I can't stay for long without help."

"How do I help you?" Loki looked to his parents, asking, "How do we help her?"

Odin had thought this over for a while. There was a need for someone like her on Midgard, a need created by a goddess who had long since been killed in battle. "There is one way that she could be able to travel between the two worlds without creating problems. Midgard is in need of a Goddess of Death, after Hela. Not a goddess of blood or of war, but a benevolent goddess to assure people pass beyond that dimension without any problem. The scales were unbalanced and the system flooded after Thanos, and someone to make order from the chaos would help. It is the only way that she could travel between the two on a regular basis, the only way to do it sustainably and to protect both Midgard and Valhalla."

"It would be unfair for me to ask," Loki realized, letting go of Laurel and taking her hands. She could see the hope in his eyes, the silent pleading for her to stay, even though he knew that he couldn't voice it. "I couldn't ask that of you."

Laurel looked to Odin, not letting go of Loki's hands as she wondered, "How do I do it?"

Odin stretched out his hand, Laurel coming over to where he stood. Loki followed, not wanting to let her out of his grasp, let alone out of his sight. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

She had made up her mind the minute Odin had said there was a way. "Yes."

"Very well." Odin put his hand on the top of her head, Laurel closing her eyes. At first, it felt like she was being dipped in cold water. She felt all of the energy flow out of her, Loki putting an arm around her before she could fall.

"What are you doing?" he asked, supporting her as Odin muttered an incantation under his breath.

Frigga came to stand beside her son, explaining that, "He has to strip all of her power away before he can give her more powers. It is normally a draining process, but for a Midgardian… well, Midgardians, let alone living ones, are not supposed to be here. She is going to feel the magical pressure of this place for a bit as he does his work."

Laurel bit her lip, the bitter cold giving way to a feeling of emptiness, a strange sensation akin to floating in the middle of a pool. She felt everything and nothing at the same time. It would have been so easy to close her eyes and fall to the ground, under the crushing pressure of the strange dimension that she had managed to reach. But Loki held her up, Frigga taking her hand as Odin started to grant her powers befitting the Goddess of Death. She leaned into Loki a bit more, keeping her eyes closed as he whispered, "Everyone here has heard of you. They've told them, and word spread, and… they're going to love seeing you. Every warrior who's died since I was a child is excited to see the Prince of Asgard find someone like you, even if it's not their favorite prince. And everyone is excited about having a princess."

"When… when would I see them? Not like this?" Laurel asked, her voice faint as Odin kept working. "Surely not like this."

"You can stay for dinner," Frigga offered, holding onto her hand tightly. "Stay. We can organize something in your honor. And I am quite sure my son would like you to stay as well."

"Only if she would like to," Loki replied, helping to steady his fiancee. "She's already sacrificed so much for me."

Odin took a step back, bringing a chair over for Laurel to drop into. "Thank you. I'll stay, of course, but I don't think I can stand upright right now."

"It's fine." Loki knelt next to her chair, Laurel slowly opening her eyes and wincing. "How do you feel?"

"Better than the last time I became a goddess," she winced. "Or should I say 'like death'?" Looking to Odin, she thanked him again, promising that she would be fine by the time she had to address the thousands of Asgardian warriors in Valhalla who were waiting to hear more news about her. Odin and Frigga took their leave for the time being, saying that they would send someone to get them when it was time for dinner. Laurel shifted in her chair, making room for Loki to squeeze in next to her. As she lay her head on his shoulder, she confessed, "I was a wreck. I'm still a wreck. I'm glad you couldn't see me after…"

Loki kissed her on the forehead, saying, "My mother kept me somewhat updated. She refused to tell me the details, but I saw her crying a few times when she thought I was in the library. Both of them were in so much pain for you. She said that she was so proud… so proud of this Midgardian woman who had stood up to Thanos and then put on a whole Asgardian funeral, who had become a goddess to fight as well as she could… She would never let me look in on you, but she kept us all updated."

"Did she tell you I went all over the universe looking for help, looking for answers, and trying to find out more about the places you've been?" She looked up at him, not wanting to ever tear her eyes away.

"She did. She told me you started a new training program at the Sanctum, that you've become the new Sorcerer Supreme, that so much has changed, but that even after all of this time, you still went looking for me. She… I still can't believe you're here. I can't believe you did all of that for me."

"I love you." It was both an explanation and a statement.

"I love you too, my dear Goddess of Death. Sorcerer Supreme, Master of the Mystic Arts," he smiled. "And, most importantly, Princess of Asgard."


	38. I'll Never Lose You Again

It seemed like all of Valhalla had turned up for the ball, even though it had been announced only hours before. Laurel and Loki stood together at the top of the palace stairs, Odin and Frigga in front of them. In a few minutes, they would be announced, letting the crowd get their first glimpse of their princess and of the only living woman in all of Valhalla. Well, somewhat living. Being the Goddess of Death meant that she could travel between the worlds of the living and the dead, occupying a strange gray area between them.

Loki took her hand, the two of them stepping forward as Odin and Frigga paraded down the stairs to thunderous applause. "They're going to love you," Loki whispered, staring straight ahead.

"I should hope so." Laurel kept her voice low, smiling as they were announced and began making their way towards where Odin and Frigga were now standing. She waved to the crowd enthusiastically, everyone cheering the two of them on. "It's going to be a long night."

A long night it was. Everyone in the world wanted to meet her, coming up to see for themselves the woman who had captured the heart of the prince they all thought would end up cynical and alone. She held onto Loki's arm for a while, both of them not wanting to let go of each other. When Frigga called him over, Loki had to reluctantly leave her talking to a group of warriors, telling stories about being in battle.

Laurel was having a wonderful time, meeting people from all over Valhalla, people who had served as warriors or were members of the royal family from a long way back. They all doted on her, asking questions about the progress on Midgard and about what she did, how she saved the world, and how they were working on defeating the man who had caused an influx of now souls into Valhalla. The people were curious about how she and Loki had met, dutifully laughing at her stories about how he had tried to take over Midgard, failed, and was imprisoned in the Avengers Facility. "So I kind of did meet him in prison," Laurel laughed, reaching for another drink.

Watching from the wall, Loki smiled to himself, seeing how she was enjoying being in the middle of a circle of people, telling them stories and joking with them. It was a role that he never liked, a role that a prince was expected to fill whether they liked it or not. Thor was great at it, holding a crowd and genuinely enjoying himself. Loki, though, preferred the small groups of people that his brother easily dominated, Thor taking over any room he walked into. So he leaned against the wall and watched Laurel, sipping his drink and politely acknowledging the few people who stopped to say hello to him.

Flocks of people came to talk to Laurel, but she only had eyes for the man leaning on the wall, keeping himself out of the way. She glanced over every chance she got, silently trying to let him know that she was doing her duty as a princess but wanted more than anything to be standing over there with him. Eventually, Odin pulled her over for a dance, saying that he owed it to his future daughter-in-law. "You know, it would be rather… uncommon, but you two could still marry," Odin offered as they dominated the dance floor. "As the new Goddess of Death, you would be able to visit him all of the time."

"I still have my duties at the Sanctum," Laurel objected, though she didn't want to. "And the the Avengers. I have my responsibilities in the mortal world." She bit her lip, thinking. "I could leave like a regular job, though. And I could engineer a way to keep in contact with Midgard… maybe some special type of radio. I know there's no real phone service out here."

"Discuss it with Loki," Odin told her, smiling to his wife as they passed. "He surely has an opinion on this. But it is an option available to you, should you wish."

He passed her on to the next noble waiting in line to dance with her, Laurel throwing Loki a look that said, "I'm sorry, I have to do this." He shrugged, just glad to be able to lay eyes on her again.

When Laurel was finally able to catch a moment to breathe, she made a beeline for where Loki was standing, pulling him onto the dance floor so no one else could come and claim her. "I'm so sorry. You know I have to -"

"It's fine," he smiled, leaning in to kiss her. They momentarily stopped in the middle of the dance floor, making all of those who were watching whisper and cheer. He winked, commenting, "Have to let them know you're mine, now don't I?"

"Hmm, maybe you should do that again, just in case they didn't get the message… Your Majesty," Laurel laughed, pulling him closer. "It's so good to see you again. I can't believe I'm here, I can't believe I'm holding you -"

"I never thought I would see you again. Not for thousands of years, anyway. And there's nothing to do but wait," he sighed, spinning her around. "The waiting was agonizing, and I had only done a few years of it. You know… I have an idea. I don't know if you'll think… Laurel, I think we should make this princess thing official. I know Thor's already granted you the title, but I think we should make it even more official, in Asgardian and in Midgardian terms."

She had to smile at that, thinking back to the conversation she had had with Odin earlier in the night. "You mean a wedding?"

Loki bit his lip, nodding slowly. "It seems odd, I know. You being able to travel between our two worlds, while I'm stuck here. You being, well, more alive than I am. Not to mention the fact that I hardly belong in an Asgardian," he stressed the word a bit more, "form of the afterlife. Then again, everything about the two of us, from the very beginning, has been a bit odd."

"Let's do it. Let's get married. I can spend a lot of my time here with you, now that I wouldn't be endangering either of our worlds by travelling between them." The music slowed, Laurel laying her head on his shoulder as she continued, "I can return to Midgard during the day and come back here at night. I'll find a way to rig up communications between here and Earth - I'm sure tony or Shuri could do it. She's the Queen of Wakanda now, but she's also a tech genius, probably better than Tony is. That way I'll know if they need me for a mission or if something's going wrong in the Sanctum. It'll be a Persephone-like arrangement."

"Persephone was a queen too," Loki reminded her, taking a half-step back as the song ended. He took her hand, leading her over to get another drink. While people tried to stop her for a quick word, Laurel simply apologized, promising that she would be back soon before following him, all the while not letting go of his hand.

As they sat there with their drinks, taking a break from the dancing and socializing, Laurel sighed, looking out across the crowd. "None of them, none of the Asgardians, none of the people on Earth… none of them understand what you did for them." Loki raised an eyebrow as she explained, "None of them understand that you gave up everything to try to stop Thanos. None of them know how much of a sacrifice you made. They still think you're a villain. They still think you're evil. I… every interview I give, I mention how you've changed, how you sacrificed yourself for the greater good. It ,makes me sad thinking they'll never know, that'll never believe it, no matter how much I try to tell them."

"You think I'm a good person, though," he said quietly, taking a sip of his drink.

"Yes. Of course I do."

"Then that's all I need," he insisted, turning to see Frigga headed for the two of them. "As long as you know the truth, that's what matters. Mother, I know you two have already met, but I should have been the one to introduce you to my lovely fiancee."

"Special circumstances," Frigga acknowledged. "Special circumstances, my dear. You did very well, though. She truly is a wonder."

It was extremely late when the ball began winding down, Loki guiding Laurel out of the ballroom and back upstairs, to the royal family's quarters. The palace in Valhalla was even bigger than the one that had been on New Asgard, and she was sure that it was larger than the original on Asgard itself, before it had been destroyed. As soon as they had closed and locked the door, Laurel kicked her heels off, sighing and wrapping her arms around him. "I love balls like that, but I'm so glad it's over." She lay her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her, silently agreeing. "There's a point where I get so bored of having the same conversation over and over and over again. And half of those people still haven't mastered not stepping on their dance partners' toes, even in the hundreds of years that they've been here."

Loki laughed, giving her a kiss and saying, "They can't all be as talented as I am, I'm afraid."

"Hmm, I guess not. You're special," she breathed, pulling him closer to the bed. "You're incredibly special, Your Majesty."

He snapped his fingers, swapping their formal clothes for their pajamas. "I just want to hold you next to me tonight. I want to hold onto you and never let you go. I… I don't want to disappoint you, but I'd rather just lay here and hold you and… just know you're real, and that you exist, and that you're here with me."

"Okay." She climbed into bed with him, laying her head on his chest as he wound his arms around her again. He was nothing like the papers made him out to be, especially the tabloids. They painted him as some sort of amorous, out-of-control bad boy, no matter how many times she told interviewers that he was a perfect gentleman. Lies almost always sold many more copies than the truth did.

"You're not… disappointed?" he ventured.

"No. You're never mad at me when I just want to sleep next to you," she told him, "and I'd be happy no matter what, as long as I'm here with you. I - are you alright?"

His eyes had grown red, Loki confessing that, "I never had anyone growing up. I mean, I had Thor, but after a while, we were so different… He was always the favorite child, the one who was really being groomed for the throne, and I became the chess piece in Odin's game of negotiating with Jotunheim. I was always 'Loki, brother of Thor'. You said it yourself - no one looks at what I've done and calls it good. But then I had you, and then I lost you… and you found your way back."

"I'll always find my way back," she promised as he held out a hand, dimming the lights so she couldn't see how his eyes were watering. "You'll never have to lose me again."

"Good." He kissed the top of her head, adding, "I love you."

"I love you too. I love you so much that I came all the way to Valhalla," Laurel laughed, pulling him as close as she could. "I've missed this. I've missed you, but I've missed this too. I've missed laying here, thinking that we fit perfectly with each other, thinking that… well, screw the rest of the world, I can be happy with you, even if everything else is going to shit. I've missed coming home and falling into bed next to you after a mission, or sitting up in the library, or going out and practicing magic on the roof. I've missed so much, and I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too. I still can't believe you're here, and that you're coming back… agh, I love you."

They sat up talking for a while longer, Laurel falling asleep a long time before Loki did. He willed himself to stay awake, listening to her steady breathing as she dreamed, smiling whenever she tried to hold him tighter in her sleep. "I really am the luckiest person in all Nine Realms," he whispered, Laurel stirring a bit.

"Hmm?"

"Ssh, go back to sleep."

"Mhm."

She snuggled closer, Loki running a hand through her hair and mouthing a silent, "I love you."


	39. Loki the Wedding Planner

Laurel left Loki with the promise that she would be back that night. He was, of course, sad to watch her go, but knew that it would only be a short wait until she was back again. There was a lot to clear up with the Avengers, with Wong, with everyone. As the Goddess of Death, all she had to do was will herself back to Earth, popping back into her world without even having to open a portal.

Wong, surprisingly, took to the plan rather well. As long as they could contact her, and as long as she could be back at the Sanctum in seconds, he agreed that she should go to Valhalla. After all, she had to oversee the souls moving on to Valhalla. Nowadays there weren't a lot, but she had to process those who came her way. She could balance her duties with the Avengers, with the Sanctum, and in Valhalla, and as long as she could balance them, Wong had no objection.

The Avengers, however, had a lot more questions for her. Tony was in a lull between projects, and happily got to work figuring out a way he could radio between dimensions. He also promised to give Queen Shuri a call to see if she had anything in the works. Bruce would be working on the project too, since his seven PhDs would come in handy when it came to the physics and interdimensional aspects of communication.

Steve was happy for her, saying that he was glad she finally was able to see him. He had spent days sitting up with her, trying to get her to talk, to cry, to admit that Loki was dead and there was nothing she could do about it. He had been there for the entire mourning process, offering a shoulder to cry on and walking with her through the whole grieving process. Even when she had first resolved to travel between the realms and to Valhalla, Steve had been there to support her. He had no idea how interdimensional travel worked, but he was glad to help hr do research and learn as much as he could.

Thor, meanwhile, wanted to know all about Valhalla. Having grown up hearing the stories about the fearsome warriors that had their places in its halls and the glorious afterlife for the members of the royal family, he wanted to know how much of it was true. "It's all real," Laurel told him, sitting down with her future brother-in-law after dinner. "All of it. I met Asgardian warriors who were famous centuries ago. I heard a lot of their stories last night. Your parents hosted a ball in my honor, after proclaiming that Loki and I could still be married, even though it's a bit of a different arrangement. Dozens of them came to introduce themselves, and all of them… you should have heard their stories. You should have heard how much they admire the entire royal family too. I would say they live for stories about us here on Midgard, but," she shrugged, laughing at her choice of expression.

"How are our parents doing? Do they seem like they like Valhalla as much as Asgard?" He had a million questions, but had to hold back and ask them one at a time.

"They look wonderful. They're enjoying themselves, since there are no enemies who could possibly attack Valhalla. There are no dangers there," Laurel told him, "so they spend their time running Valhalla, throwing parties… they seem like they have so much more fun there. Your mother especially has been worried about Loki, but now that I'm able to go there, she seems so relieved. You know, there's something I have to ask you. You know loki and I are still planning on getting married."

Thor nodded. "Yes."

"I can't bring everyone there with me, but we would all like it if you could come for the ceremony," Laurel said, offering to bring him to Valhalla. "Loki needs a best man, and he needs his brother there. I'd be able to bring you without any real repercussions, since I can travel between the two worlds. I wish I could bring everyone, but… maybe once Tony figures out a way to keep up contact in Valhalla, we could set everyone up on a video call."

Thor nodded again, pretending like he understood how regular video calling worked, let alone interdimensional video calling. "I would be honored. To be completely honest, Loki had asked me to be his best man before he even asked you to marry him. He needed someone to - the expression is 'psych him up', right?"

"Really?" Laurel smiled. "It is. But I never would have thought he needed a pep talk for that. He's always so sure of himself."

"He is, but not when it comes to things like that. For centuries, he's shut himself off from anything but seeking power, anything even close to it. He's been bitter and angry at the world, at me, at our father, but that's started to change. It started well before you, but you surely sped it up," Thor revealed, starting to unravel the behind-the-scenes conversations he had had with his brother. "From the day he planned to ask for your hand, he came to ask me for help, once or twice a day. He spelled everything out, tried to practice with me… Outwardly he seems so sure of himself, but there is so much doubt."

Laurel couldn't help but smile a bit, thinking of how awful it must have been for Loki to admit that he had no idea what he was doing, that he was terrified of asking her a simple question. It must have been worse for him than for a normal Midgardian man, since he also had to ask her if she wanted to spend the rest of his life with him, let alone the rest of hers. "I'm sure he doubts much more than we know."

As soon as she appeared back in Valhalla, Loki came to find her, having heard her popping into the dimension in the front hall of his quarters. "How was your day, love?" He dropped into a chair, watching Laurel set down a box of her things and start unpacking. "Do you have much more in Midgard?"

"Just a few boxes," she replied, waving her hand and sending a pile of clothes to their room. "I spent all day helping Wong work on a new training program and telling the others about moving here. Thor's willing to come here for the wedding, by the way."

Loki nodded, saying, "You realize how big of a wedding this is going to have to be, do you not? If this were Midgard, we could have a quiet ceremony, but I am a prince, and… well, this will be as big as your realm's royal weddings."

"Mmm, I know. I kind of figured, after that ball, after I saw how many people wanted to meet me," Laurel said, coming over to sit next to him. "But we'll figure something out. We've got a little while yet."

"My mother is going to want to have a say in your choice of dress."

"And your father is giving me away," she added, Loki agreeing readily. "I've already been talking with them about it. They have a bunch of things prepared already. All we really needed was Thor to agree, and he's said yes. I'm going to start working on plans with your mother soon."

Loki stood, headed for his kitchen. "I'll help," he volunteered, starting to take things out of cabinets to make dinner. I'm Valhalla, no one really needed to eat or drink, but they did it for the enjoyment. And he knew Laurel still needed three meals a day, since she was, at her core, still a Midgardian, and still alive. "I spend my days here reading and practicing my spellwork and… you know, all sorts of time-occupying things. This will give me something to focus on. Besides, you have much to do in Midgard as it is."

"Thank you," Laurel smiled, coming over to lay her head on his shoulder as he started to cook. "And thank you for feeding me."

"It's not a problem. I've been reading up on Midgardian cooking. How do you feel about Indian food?"

"Perfect. I'm starving. Here, let me grab my laptop and I can show you some decorations I'm thinking about while you cook," Laurel offered, disappearing into the living for a moment.

"Alright. Could you grab the rice from the pantry on your way back?"

Loki smiled to himself, immensely grateful that she was back, that they were picking their lives up from where they had left off. They could live like that forever, if they really wanted. There would be hiccups on the way, of course, and plenty of adventures as Laurel kept saving the world and avoiding catastrophe with the Avengers, but for that moment, they were just the two of them again. Just the two of them, in the home that they had created, carved out from the palace. Just the two of them, the rest of the world not mattering at all. As his fiancee reappeared in the kitchen doorway, her computer in hand, Loki noticed again how she walked, how she would perch on the kitchen counter when she wanted to work but be a part of what was going on there, how her hair fell around her glasses as she logged into her laptop. How she would bite her lip as she searched for the file she wanted, how her eyes lit up as she found it and spun her computer around so he could see. "Here, look. What do you think of these? Or should we go with… let me find them… here, which one do you like better? Your mother says the second, but I'm leaning towards the first."

As they sat there planning their wedding, Loki knew that no matter what, things would work out. They would be able to figure out how to deal with Thanos, and, eventually, they would both end up there together, in Valhalla. For now, though, he was completely focused on making dinner and planning a wedding.


	40. To Wed the Undead

Leaving Thor in the hands of his mother and father, Laurel disappeared to start getting ready. She had woken up early to go back to Earth and bring Thor to Valhalla, a process that required a bit of protective spellwork on either side of the dimensional gap. But they ultimately made it, Thor overjoyed at the sight of his parents. As she made her way down the hall, Laurel could hear him excitedly reuniting with both of them and asking about his brother. He and Odin would be going to find Loki soon enough, Frigga coming to help Laurel get ready.

She stood in the middle of a massive bathroom, staring into the mirror. A few years before, she never would have thought she would be getting married. Let alone to a dead god, a prince, or to anyone like Loki. But here she was, starting to put her makeup on and setting her hair up with a spell. Just a few years before, she never would have thought there were realms or dimensions other than the one she lived and worked in, or anything outside of the lab that she had in Sokovia. Even as she began to practice the Mystic Arts with Stephen, she never would have thought that her life would turn out like this.

"You look lovely already, my dear," Frigga beamed, coming into the room with a soft knock. "Your dress is hanging on the door, by the way. I love the way it turned out." She leaned back on the wall, watching Laurel work. "You know, I had wished for a daughter for so long. Odin and I had the boys, but I had always wished for a daughter. Then they began to grow up, and I had so much hope that they would marry well, whoever they chose to marry. I am quite glad to see that Loki did. Well, is about to."

"Thank you," Laurel smiled, concentrating on trying not to stab herself in the eye with her mascara wand. "I never thought I would be marrying a man like him." She turned to look her soon-to-be mother-in-law in the eye. "I didn't come from royalty. Far from it. At one time, I thought I would marry a man who turned out to be a criminal. And then I thought I would end up marrying a wizard. And now I'm marrying someone who's both, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Loki was… a troubled child," Frigga told her, choosing her words carefully as Laurel kept getting ready. "He was quieter than Thor, but just as determined. He was a brave warrior, surely, but his father… Thor was always his father's favorite. It is no secret that Loki was mine, but he always felt that he was in Thor's shadow. I tried my best, but I could never seem to show him that he was a light in his own right."

Laurel nodded, saying, "He has quite a lot to unpack, shall I say. But he really is lovely. I'm glad he took after you. They warned me about him, when we first met they told me how dangerous and how awful he was, but by then, he had started to take after you. He softened, somewhat. That's the only way I can describe it."

As Frigga helped to button up the back of her dress, she offered her (almost) daughter-in-law some wisdom. "You two are going to fight. You will disagree on things. Fundamental things, especially when it comes to your children. Being a woman from Midgard, it will be even worse for you, since you come from two completely different realms. But you will be able to work it out. Listen before you think of what to tell him. Forgive him a little more than you would anyone else, because he has not had a happy life. And remind him that you love him, even when you get mad." She spun the girl around, adding, "There you are. You are absolutely beautiful. Truly a princess, and truly worthy of being called my daughter-in-law. Are you ready?"

"Yes." Laurel took a deep breath, Frigga taking her by the hand and leading her through a series of passageways under the palace until they had reached the door of an expansive hall. Odin was waiting for her, taking her arm as Frigga slipped inside the hall to watch from the audience.

"He is very excited to see you," Odin whispered as the doors opened and the procession began. "You were the only thing he would talk about."

Hundreds of people were gathered in the hall, sitting on either side of the aisle and cheering as she walked in. They were loud enough to drown out the music, but Laurel hardly paid attention to them. Instead she was focused on where Thor and loki were standing, dressed in full Asgardian regalia. Thor was leaning over and whispering something to his brother, Loki smiling in response. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her long enough to respond. "You look… breathtaking, my love," he mouthed as Laurel reached him, glancing out over the crowd before immediately returning her eyes to him.

Their vows were read out, rings exchanged, and "I do"s said, Odin then taking the place of the chaplain. "As part of our Old Asgardian tradition, and as a sign of commitment to each other, the Prince and Princess will now bind their hands together in an ancient ceremony." Loki and Laurel dutifully raised their hands, a thin golden cord snaking its way around them. "Do you, Prince Loki of Asgard, Odinson, God of Mischief, freely and without reservation enter this union?"

"I do," Loki nodded, still not able to look away from Laurel, from her eyes glittering in the glowing light of the cord that surrounded their hands.

"And do you, Princess Laurel of Asgard, Goddess of Death, freely and without reservation enter this union?"

"I do," she smiled, looking between their hands, now bound, and Loki's eyes.

"Then as this knot has been tied, so too are the two of you now bound to each other. Woven into this knot are the hopes of your friends and family for your lives together. With this knot, I tie all of their wishes of love and happiness to your loves, as long as you both shall… live," Odin smiled a bit at the word. "In the joining of your hands, so too are you bound to one another. By this knot, you are thus bound to your vows. May this knot remin tied as long as your love shall last, in the name of the Ancestors, the Gods and Goddesses, in the name of Asgard and its dynasties. May the vows you have spoken never grow bitter in your moths, and may this cord draw your hands together in love, and never in anger. Bound by love, in joy and sadness, in victory and hardships, in reconciliation and anger, may you two hold tight to one another through both good times and bad, and remember that it is not this cord, but what it represents, that keeps you two together." Magically dissolving the knot around their hands, he looked between them, finally declaring, "You may kiss your bride."

Loki leaned forward and kissed her, the crowd erupting into applause as they turned to face them, waving and slowly making their way towards the banquet hall, where a traditional Asgardian wedding feast was waiting for them.

Through dinner and dessert, through the cutting of the cake, right up until the first dance, they hardly had time to say more than a few words to each other. Whether it was Odin and Frigga making a speech or relatives and guests trying to talk to both of them, they were pulled apart or forced to sit in silence, holding hands and knowing that they were both going through this together. There was one more toast that they had to get through before the first dance could start, though, Thor raising his glass and quieting the guests.

He looked to where Loki and Laurel were standing, raising his glass again and saying, "My brother, I never thought you would find happiness as all-encompassing as you have found with her. I wished it all of the time for you, but this was a pleasant surprise. Laurel, I never would have thought, when we first met, that we would have become such good friends. I also never would have thought you could live with my brother this long," he laughed, continuing with, "but it was a pleasant surprise. The two of you have my word that I will do everything in my power to be here for you, to support you, to love you both, for the rest of my life and beyond it." He drank, Laurel and Loki leading the applause.

As the music began to swell, Laurel turned to her husband, taking his hand as he led her out onto the dance floor. "You know, this is the first real conversation we've had all day," Laurel whispered, trying to keep up a smile for the crowd, even though all she wanted to do was talk to him. "I can't believe this… is all of Valhalla watching?"

"They are," Loki nodded almost imperceptibly. "They had the wedding up on screens and projections all over. There are parties going on all across Valhalla right now."

"You know, it's gotten to the point where I'd really rather just be here with you," Laurel sighed, laying her head on his shoulder. "I've been up since the crack of dawn trying to get Thor here, and then getting ready for this all, and the ceremony, and… it all took forever. I'm tired of people," she confessed.

"We'll be alone soon enough, and I'll be sure to tire you out," he winked, making Laurel laugh to herself. As the first song blended into the second, other couples began flooding the dance floor. Loki was forced to relinquish Laurel, Odin asking for a dance.

After Odin danced with his new daughter-in-law, Thor came over to take her hand and spin her around the dance floor, taking the opportunity to congratulate her again. Laurel could see Loki leading Frigga around closeby, the two of them talking and having a great time together. When Loki finally got her back, however, he didn't let go of her for the rest of the night.

They watched as Thor made the rounds, greeting old relatives and friends he had lost in battle. Odin and Frigga spent their time dancing and socializing, catching up with Thor. It seemed like everyone there wanted to say hello to Loki and Laurel, so they plastered on smiles, greeting their guests jovially, even though they didn't know the majority of them personally. It was getting quite late when they caught a moment to themselves. "Should we make our grand escape now?" Loki asked, Laurel nodding and following him into a secret passageway right outside of the reception hall.

Loki tossed a couple of glowing spheres of light up in the air when they reached their rooms, Laurel glad to finally be able to kick off her heels, set her tiara down, and pull the bobby pins out of her hair. As she glanced outside of the window, she felt a cold pair of hands gliding over her shoulders. "Thank you for marrying me," Loki said, his lips hovering inches from her ear. "All things considered."

"I'd have married you on Midgard, I'd have married you on Asgard… this is what was going to happen no matter what," she assumed him, turning to face her new husband in the moonlight. "I love you."

"I love you too, princess." He smiled as he leaned in to kiss her, incredibly glad that, for once, he had gotten what he wanted, no manipulation or tricks involved. He had gotten more than he wanted - he had married her, far more than he had ever expected. "Do you want to know something deliciously awful?"

"Hmm?" She draped her arms over his shoulders, raising an eyebrow.

Loki bit his lip, lowering his voice as he told her, "I know the handfasting thing was my idea, that I thought it was a beautiful bit of tradition. But all I could think of while we were standing there was… well, how much I'd like to see you tied up, with many more knots than that. Don't worry, love, I'll be gentle."

"To see me completely helpless, completely at your mercy?" She leaned forward to kiss him again, their lips parting only slightly as she whispered, "You're going to have to help me undo all of these buttons first, Your Majesty."


	41. Birthright

"I didn't know Valhalla had mountains," Laurel sighed, sitting out on the balcony of their room. She and Loki had gone far from the palace, far from the eyes of the public, off to the mountains of Valhalla for their honeymoon.

"Valhalla has everything," Loki replied, coming over and handing her a glass of wine. "There is a beach somewhere around here, and a countryside, and a desert. Valhalla has a bit of everything."

Leaning back in her chair, Laurel nodded as she watched the sky start to change colors. "It certainly has some of the best sunsets I've ever seen."

The two of them had spent a few days in the mountains, hiking and exploring the place that Laurel had only read about in books on Norse mythology. All of it was real, and more. All of the strange creatures she had heard about, all of the things that were myths to her and stories passed down from the ancestors to Loki and Thor, all of them were real. The mountains there were more spectacular than any of the ones she had seen back on Midgard, unfolding into snow-capped peaks carpeted in dense forests. They were filled with animals that she had only read about, Laurel taking a great interest in everything that crossed their paths.

For his part, Loki was just glad to be away from the palace, away from the prying eyes of the rest of Valhalla. Their cabin was a few miles from the rest of civilization, tucked away in a quiet little part of the forest. No one had bothered them so far, allowing the two of the the freedom to go on adventures far from everyone else, far from the Asgardians trying to get a glimpse of the royal couple.

"You're the best sight I've ever seen," Loki replied, staring out at the horizon as it was painted in different hues of red, orange, and gold.

Laurel got up from her chair, coming to stand next to him by the railing. She leaned her head on his shoulder, switching her wine glass to her other hand so she could intertwine her fingers with his. "I'm glad we did this, you know. I'm glad we decided to get married, even if it was… here."

"Me too," he sighed, giving her a kiss. "I don't think I'll ever be able to believe that you came all the way here. That you went to Jotunheim, to Sakaar. That you studied for years, until you figured out how to put together a spell to get here, without any help."

"What can I say, it's a gift," Laurel shrugged, turning back to watch the sun going down. "Can I ask you something?"

"You already know that you may ask me anything."

"I had this dream, a while back, when I was trying to figure those spells out. I had a dream about… well, about us," she began, looking to Loki, who was now watching her attentively. "In this dream, we had a little girl. She looked so much like you, and she was so sweet… Would you want to have kids someday? Not right now, not any time soon. Not until after Thanos. But one day, well, what do you think?"

Loki bit his lip, thinking. "One day. Surely not any time soon, but one day, if we feel like it, I don't think I would be entirely opposed to the idea."

"You're not worried?" Laurel had to ask, raising an eyebrow. "You're not worried about what could happen? About what... what the two of us having kids could mean for them?"

"I'm beyond worried. What if our child looks like a Jotun? What if they take after me? What if they live a lot shorter of a life than we do? What does it mean that I'm… dead? Love, I don't know, but I know I would have you along for the ride too, and, well, it would make it a lot less uncertain, a lot less nerve-wracking knowing that I had you there," Loki offered, squeezing her hand.

"Can I ask you something else?" Loki nodded, waiting somewhat expectantly. He had gotten used to Laurel asking point-blank questions, especially when she didn't understand something about Asgard, about Jotunheim, about how he had grown up. "What do your parents really think of you marrying a Midgardian?"

 _Loki was standing in the hallway, invisible to everyone else as he listened to Odin and Frigga, the two of them talking in hushed voices in the throne room. It was far later than they were usually up, far later than even Loki was usually awake. He couldn't sleep, knowing that he would be getting married the next day. Apparently Odin and Frigga couldn't sleep either._

" _I am just proud that he managed to find someone to settle down with, someone who can handle him, who can handle all of the twists and turns of the life he lives," Frigga was saying, her voice getting louder and then softer and then louder again as she paced the room. "She is such a sweet girl, such an understanding girl. I swear, she must be a saint."_

" _She certainly is something," Odin agreed. Loki could tell that he was sitting down, his voice remaining in the same spot as Frigga's wavered with her movement. "The first time I saw her, my dear, I knew they would end up together, no matter what came between them. They reminded me of the two of us, when we first were married. Loki has grown up quite a lot, but he still needs someone like her in his life, much like I did. I have grown older and wiser with you by my side, and I know you have helped to temper me as well. I can only hope that she does the same for him."_

 _Frigga sighed, admitting that, "I was so worried, thinking that she might not accept his offer of living so long, knowing that she would slowly lose the life that she knows. But now, well, things are different now. With all said and done, it turned out fairly well."_

" _I still do not know what I think of him marrying a Midgardian woman. Then again, he is not truly of Asgard himself," Odin told her. Loki peered into the room, trying to see the two of them. He caught a glimpse of his mother as she walked, Odin hidden by the door. "Ah, I am happy for him, I truly am, even if this is not customary of an Asgardian prince."_

" _He is happy, so I am happy," Frigga resolved. "I just feel bad for her, having to come to Valhalla to live with him, to be with her husband. It is not something anyone should have to bear, but she does it happily. I hope she continues to see it this way, as a bit of a bump in the road and not as something to separate them."_

 _Loki had left them with that, having heard them approaching the door. Creeping back into his room, he closed the door silently before crawling back into bed with Laurel. She rolled over, mumbling something in her sleep. "Where... did you go?"_

 _"It's alright, I'm here," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her forehead, letting her snuggle closer to him. "I love you."_

" _Love you," she yawned, blinking a few times but finding her eyelids too heavy to keep open for long. "'Night, Loki."_

" _Goodnight, love." He couldn't help but smile at her as she fell asleep again, thinking of how, this time tomorrow, she would be his wife. There would be no discernable difference, nothing changing except their titles. Nothing at all would have changed, but at the same time, everything would be different, at least in the eyes of the others in Valhalla, on Midgard, and in the little town of Asgard in Norway, a town that only a few people knew about._

"They were skeptical at first," Loki admitted, "but they came around to the idea. My mother was the one to convince Odin, and as soon as he looked in on you, he knew that you were as wonderful as I knew you to be. They have no problem with you," he assured her. "My mother, I'm sure, sees you as the daughter she never had, the one she always wanted to have around to dress up and turn into a queen. The exact opposite of our real sister. Had you been their child, I'm sure you would have surpassed both Thor and I and taken the throne of Asgard."

Laurel smiled, guiding him inside and pouring them both some more wine. "It would be an honor, I'm sure, but I don't think I would be fit to be a queen. I don't think I would even be accepted as a queen. I may be a goddess, but I'm still a Midgardian. You know they couldn't have either one of us on the throne of Asgard."

"But I could have you on the throne of Asgard," he smirked, Laurel rolling her eyes. "In fact… didn't I?'

"New Asgard, but close enough," she laughed, sitting down on the bed beside him. "They wouldn't want either one of us on the throne, how about that? Sound better to you?"

Loki took a sip of his drink, confessing, "I don't need to have the throne, you know. I only wanted to prove it to Odin, to prove that I could rule just as well as Thor could, that he wasn't the only good one in the family. He never apologized, my father." He said the word 'father' like a curse, his voice dripping with deep-seated resentment. "He once told me that the only birthright I had was to die. He never once apologized for that, for any of it."

"Your birthright is to be a king, even without a throne, without a people… Your birthright is to be a king. I'll always see you that way." She paused, sitting up a bit so he could wrap an arm around her shoulders. "Your birthright... screw a birthright. Screw royal expectations, screw all of it. The only thing you should have to live up to is the promise that we made to each other."


	42. I Wouldn't Normally Ask

"Love, are you alright?" Loki had walked into their room, finding Laurel laying in bed, clearly in pain. It was late in the afternoon, only a little while before they had to be at a formal dinner, but she had closed the curtains and was trying to sleep. "Do you have a headache? Would you like me to leave?"

She sat up, wincing as she moved. "No, it's fine. I'll be fine. You don't have to go if you don't want to. It's about time for me to get up and start getting ready for dinner anyway. Are all of those noblemen still coming?" Reaching for her glasses, Laurel yawned, trying not to move too much.  
"Yes." Laurel rolled her eyes with a groan, thinking that they must have stashed some painkillers somewhere in the bathroom closet. Of course they were hosting other people at dinner that night. Of course. "Love, what's wrong?"

Slowly, she got up, heading for the bathroom sink and starting to wash her face off. "Do you remember when I explained… Midgardian physiology to you?"

"I do. Are you ill?" He leaned against the wall, watching as she reached for a towel, drying her face before she started brushing her teeth. "Is it one of those Midgardian diseases? You look like you may have a fever. Do you have a cold? The flu? The one where you start getting pink spots all over your skin? I don't remember what you called it, but it had an odd name."

"No," she told him through a mouth full of toothpaste. "Do you remember when I explained how some Midgardians, with, ah, certain functioning organs, at certain times, are afflicted with -"

"Oh, are you…? I know you're in horrible pain sometimes when this happens… Do you want to skip the dinner and stay here?" Loki offered, coming to give her a hug. He met her eye in the mirror, saying, "We could skip the dinner entirely, if you want. I could have something brought from the kitchens, and you wouldn't have to get out of bed at all."

Laurel shook her head, saying, "I can go, it'll be fine. I've had to go out on missions like this before. A formal dinner with your parents and some important government officials won't be a problem." She washed her mouth out and turned back to him, finding two Lokis standing there, both of them exactly the same. "What are you going?"

"I'm sending him to dinner, and I'm staying with you," the real Loki shrugged, snapping his fingers and creating a duplicate of her, dressed up and ready to go. "They can go, and we can stay here. They're perfect copies of the two of us, and they can talk and act just like we would."

"You know I don't like it when you duplicate yourself," she frowned, "but I guess this can be an exception. You know I only like having the real you here." Pulling her hair back, she slowly got back into bed, moving over so he could sit next to her. "Send them to dinner, and then conjure me some food, if you could. I'm starving."

Obediently, Loki waved the two duplicates out of the door, watching as they held hands and made their way down the hall. When he was sure that they were gone, he came to sit beside her, conjuring up dinner for the two of them. "May I ask you something, love?"

"Hmm?"

"First, would you like some tea? And secondly, what does it feel like?"

"Tea would be great. And it feels like I'm being punched in the stomach, almost constantly, for a few days. Not something you'd ever want to experience."

Loki waved his hand, a cup of tea appearing next to where Laurel sat. She reached out for it, taking a sip as he nodded. "I'm going to try it." Laurel raised an eyebrow as he stood up, beginning to transform. The female Loki had the same dark hair, the same piercing eyes, the same pale skin as the form he usually took. Placing a cold hand on Laurel's stomach, she blinked, looking puzzled. "I'm not quite sure how to do this bit of the transformation," she said, immediately biting her lip and putting her hands to her own abdomen. "Oh gods, this is terrible. How do you deal with this?"

"Yep," Laurel nodded, watching as Loki sat down, marveling at the odd pain that she was in. "Not fun at all."

Loki agreed, morphing back into the form that he usually took. "Well, I for one am glad that I don't have to go through that."

"I'm jealous," Laurel mumbled, settling in and laying her head on his shoulder as they ate.

Halfway through their dinner, Loki looked in on their body doubles, opening up a portal on the roof of the dining hall. The two of them were smiling and joking with the other guests, enjoying their dinner and being pleasant hosts, as was expected of them. Odin and Frigga clearly had been fooled, as had the rest of their dinner guests. The fake Laurel leaned and whispered something in the fake Loki's ear, making him laugh. He had gotten their characterizations right, for sure. Looking back to the real Laurel, Loki took a deep breath, wondering, "May I ask another question about Midgardians?"

"Ask away," Laurel offered, knowing that she was one of his best sources of information on Midgard and the people who inhabited it.

"I have heard that some Midgardian women…" he hesitated, not wanting to offend her. "Some Midgardian women pretend that… they fake the sighs and the moans and... of -" Laurel couldn't help but start laughing at how he was dancing around the question.

"Yes, some of them do," she affirmed, watching as Loki grew even more confused about why she was laughing. "I'll spare you asking the question. Yes, I have, before. With other people. Not with you."

His face remained unchanged, Laurel noticing that he had set his fork down and stopped eating for a bit. "Why?"

"Why do they do it? Because they want to make the other person feel good, even when they're just… bad," she explained, pausing to take a sip of her tea. "It's an ego-booster when we just want to go to sleep. Relax, I've never done it to you, I promise."

Loki nodded, recovering enough to say, "I'll make sure you never have to." He continued eating, at least until he saw Laurel's grip on her fork tightening. "Something wrong?"

"You know that pain you felt? Sometimes it randomly gets worse."

He put a cold hand to her stomach, wondering if there was anything he could do to help. "I don't want to try any sort of magic," he had to confess. "I don't know much about it, and I don't want to end up hurting you by accident."

"It's probably for the best. I know it wouldn't hurt me, but I don't know what it might do if we decide to have kids one day. I mean, it'll be enough being half Jotun and half human. I wouldn't want to risk anything else, magical or not. The cold feels good, though." She glanced down to see that he had allowed his hand to turn light blue, keeping a bit of distance from her skin. "It's my turn to ask you something now."

"Anything."

"Why can't you touch me when you're… when you look like the other Jotuns?"

It was a reasonable enough question. "What was that experiment you and Dr. Banner showed me once - liquid nitrogen? You remember how it froze everything that was dipped in it? It would be something like that. If I touched you, I would end up crystallizing your skin, since you are not a Jotun. The closest I can get to being able to touch you is through a magical barrier, but even then, I don't want to risk it. Here, watch." He took her teacup, turning his arm blue and just barely touching the surface of her drink. Immediately it turned to solid ice. "Now imagine what would happen if I did that to a human." He defrosted the cup, handing it over after he had assumed his Asgardian form again.

"So Odin disguised you not only as an Asgardian, but also with some sort of magic shield that prevents you from freezing people?"

"Pretty much."

"Cool," Laurel nodded. Loki knew that she had long aso gotten used to learning things like this, casually incorporating them into her mind, whereas other people would have been terrified. "So it's just a natural thing now?"

"Yes." Loki set his plate aside before vanishing it.

"Hmm… then could you turn yourself blue again? I hardly ever get to see what you really look like," she frowned, Loki giving a sigh and acquiescing.

As he began to turn back to blue, he told her that, "This is only because your insides are ripping themselves apart. I'm not making this a regular thing." Finally meeting her eye, he added, "You know I hate this."

"I know," she sighed, reaching out and taking his hand. She turned it over, inspecting her fingers intertwined with his blue ones. "But I think you look just fine. You're still Loki. You're more Loki than I normally see, actually. Besides, I've seen you transform into so many things. No matter what, you're still you. It's alright."

"It's quite different," he insisted as Laurel vanished her own plate. "I was raised to hate the Frost Giants, as was everyone on Asgard. I was raised to believe that they are pure evil, that they are far less than Asgardians - your expression is 'less than human' is it not? We were raised to hate everything about them. And then I found out that I was one, and that it played into in so many of the decisions Odin made about raising Thor and I. It isn't that easy to just get over."

Laurel ran her fingers over the lines on his face, tracing the things that reminded him so much of his hated past. He absolutely detested them, the raised markings of the Jotuns. Just like the skin that was as blue as polar ice, the red eyes that haunted the nightmares of Asgardian children, he despised them, refusing to show them to anyone but her. Frigga and Odin had seen them, as had Thor, but no one else had ever gotten close. "I'm sorry," she finally said, breaking the silence. "I'm sorry you hate the way you look. I'm sorry they taught you all of those things until you internalized them. I'm sorry… I'm sorry the Asgardians hate the Jotuns so much. You don't scare me, you know. Even the red eyes, they don't scare me. I think you're incredibly handsome, even like this."

"Well, I am not fond of it at all," Loki told her, wishing he could turn back to his normal form. It wasn't that he was self-conscious, sitting with her and looking like some sort of blue oddity, just that he hated seeing himself like that, the constant reminder of Jotunheim. There were plenty of things that he covered up, but being blue was one of the most major. "May I turn back now?"

"Just a second." Laurel leaned in and gave him a kiss, saying, "Alright, you can change back now, if you want." Like a chameleon, his skin immediately changed color, his eyes getting lighter until he looked like he always did. "Thank you. I just want you to remember that I love you, no matter what you look like."

"Well, should we ever have children, I hope they look nothing like me," Loki resolved, resting his hand on her stomach again. "Now, do you want to watch a movie? I know you don't want to move very much."


	43. The Secret

"Steve!" Laurel yelled across the compound, her voice panicked. She would have yelled for Loki, but there was no way he could come all the way from Valhalla. Besides, she really didn't want him to show up right then, either.

Steve, who had been walking down their hall at the time, jogged in, asking what was wrong. He had his lunch in hand, setting the plate aside as he came to sit next to her on her bed. Laurel took a deep breath, not meeting his eye. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Loki and I… we… I don't know how I'm going to tell him, but -"

She was interrupted by the beeping of their comms units, Tony calling to tell them that they had to be onboard the jet in five minutes. There was a "rogue government with nuclear missiles," Steve read as Laurel launched from her spot, going to grab her uniform from the closet. "We've got to get the launch codes before they use them to take out… the target's a hospital. They're trying to cripple the government."

"Where are we headed?" Laurel asked, pulling her hair back as she searched for her boots.

"The Middle East. I'm sorry. Can we talk later? I know you're going through a lot -"

"It's fine. I'll see you on the jet." She watched him grab his plate and go before she disappeared into the bathroom, changing quickly and heading for the hangar.

The others were busily crowding onto the jet, taking their seats and snacking on whatever they could grab before they ran to meet up. Everyone had been busy, either finishing up in the gym or starting to make lunch, when the call came. Steve was the last one onboard, dropping into his customary seat next to Laurel as they took off. Tony started talking immediately, not letting him have any chance to say hello. "The call came in a few minutes ago. They're threatening to launch by tonight if they don't reach a deal with the government, but we all know they're not going to negotiate with a terrorist group. So we've got to go in there and separate the launch codes from the guys who can actually launch this thing, and disable the weapons while we're at it. Bruce, I'm looking at you."

Bruce nodded, adding, "I can get that part taken care of, no problem. I'm going to need to get at their computer systems, though. And I'm going to need you guys to keep them off my back while I work. I could probably disable the weapon manually, but it's a lot easier to take it down from their systems and let the big boys disassemble the weapons in the lab. We've got government support on this, right?"  
"Eh, more or less," Tony shrugged. "We'll have it as soon as we stop World War Three."

"Everything's World War Three these days," Steve pointed out, gesturing with a bagel. "Back in my day -"

"No offense, Cap, but back in your day, we hardly knew what nuclear weapons were," Nat smiled, getting up to grab a bottle of water from the fridge. "How many soldiers are we looking at?"

"The base has got at least thirty, maybe more." Tony pulled up some schematics, translating them into a hologram as he pointed towards where the weapons were stored. "I count at least thirty bunks, plus whoever drives in. this bunker's in the middle of their camp."

"Bunker?"

Laurel agreed, saying, "It has to be a bunker. There are no windows on here, and the wires into the building all look like they run downwards, like you were lighting a basement or something. It only makes sense, hiding your nuclear weapons command inside a bunker, just in case. We can get in there, no problem."

"You sure?" Bruce asked, leaning closer to look at the hologram. "It looks like they have reinforced doors, alarm systems here, here, and here, and one over there, and.. What is that?"  
"Cornea scanning access," Nat told him, sitting back down. "Like Laurel said, no problem."

As the jet leveled out and they settled in for the ride, Steve leaned over, asking Laurel what was going on, "now that we're on the jet. What's wrong? Is all of the traveling between Earth and Valhalla wearing you down?"

"No." Laurel shook her head, smiling sadly. "Can we talk about this later? I'd rather not… broadcast my business to the entire jet, at least not right now. When we get home, come and find me, okay? God, Steve, this… I'm glad I have friends like you and the rest of them. Especially you."

"Thanks," he nodded, not asking for any more of an explanation.

It ended up taking them a little while longer than they expected, but with minimal casualties, the new group of Avengers managed to stop the next world war with relatively few problems. Laurel and Nat had infiltrated the base first, clearing the way for the rest of them to move in. While they held off the fighters outside, Bruce managed to shut down the launch system while Rocket disassembled parts of the weapons in storage. Ultimately everything had been turned over to the government, making sure that no rogue groups could get access to nuclear weapon technology in the near future. As they flew back to the Avengers Facility, Laurel called Loki, telling him that they would be back in "an hour or so. I'm going to get myself cleaned up before I come home, though."

"Alright. Is everything okay, love? You look worried."

"I look exhausted," Laurel laughed, the video call lagging for a few seconds. "Is pent all day trying not to get shot, and trying to keep the world from being blown up. I'm allowed to look like a raccoon." Raising her voice a bit, she added, "No offense, Rocket!"

"None taken," the raccoon replied, hopping up on the choir next to her with a bag of potato chips. "That you dead husband?"

"That's my dead husband," she confirmed, turning back to Loki. "Don't wait up for me, okay? I have no clue when I'll make it back to Valhalla. They're all pretty exhausted too, but if they order a late dinner or something, I might just eat with everybody else."

"Have a safe trip, love."

When she had hung up with Loki, Laurel joined in the poker game that Tony had started to keep them all entertained while they were flying back to their base. "What are we betting with?" she asked, taking her seat a little while into the first game.

"We don't have real chips, and all I've got in my wallet is a handful of fives," Bruce offered, moving over so she could fit her chiar in. "Tony's betting the naming rights to his first kid, if that's any indication of how he thinks his hand is going."

"I guess I'll bet," Laurel laughed, accepting a hand of cards.

They reached the Avengers Facility well after dark, Tony calling for pizza as they landed. Everyone split off into different directions, taking to their rooms to get cleaned up and trying not to think about how hungry they were. Laurel was just about to head for the living room when there was a knock on her door. Steve was standing there, now wearing clean clothes and a sympathetic expression. "Hey. Mind if I come in?"

"Yeah, sure." Laurel opened the door, allowing him inside. "I was just about to head out, but I'm glad you found me before dinner."

"Pizza's here, but I figured I'd see how you were doing first. I can tell whatever's going on has been weighing on you all day"

Laurel took a deep breath, confessing, "Steve, I'm pregnant."

"Congratulations," he smiled, his expression dropping as she shook her head slightly, keeping her face blank. "No?"

"We've talked about it, but we never thought… we didn't want to have kids this soon. Especially not while Thanos is still out there," Laurel explained, leaning on the wall in her front hallway. "We wanted to at least wait until Thanos was taken care of, because he's the biggest thing we've ever faced. He's supposedly not a threat any more, not now that he's wiped out half of the universe. But we both know that isn't totally true. He's got to be biding his time. He has more power in one hand than anyone else has ever had. Eventually he's going to want to use it. We wanted him to be… we wanted the threat to be neutralized before we had kids. And then there's Loki…"

Steve raised an eyebrow, thinking back to all of the discussions they had had about loki in the past. "He doesn't want to have kids?"

"Not any time soon!" She bit her lip, trying to keep her voice level. "He's still terrified of having kids, since he has no idea how to be a father. He never had a good one, and, well, you know what he can be like. He's calmed down a lot, but still… I don't know how I'm going to tell him. I don't know what he'll say. Oh, then we'll have to tell all of Asgard, and all of Valhalla… it's one thing being here, being watched by the newspapers, but being a princess is totally different. Steve, I don't know what I'm going to do."

He reached out for her, giving his friend a hug and offering some practical advice. "You're going to go eat some dinner with the rest of us, and sit around and talk for a little while. Then you're going to go home and get some rest. Think about what you want to do, how you want to tell him. If you want to tell him. Once you're done thinking, then you can act on it, but not a moment before. No matter what you decide, I'll be here."

"I… thank you." Laurel took a step back, resolving that they should go and eat before their food got cold. Or before Tony and Thor started stealing it.

It was well after midnight when Laurel got ready to head back to Valhalla, making sure she said goodnight to Steve before she left. It only took a second for her to appear in their living room in Valhalla, setting her things down and creeping into the bedroom. The lights were off, Loki rolling over in bed as Laurel held up a ball of light, dimming it as much as possible as she hunted for her pajamas. As quietly as she could, Laurel got ready for bed, climbing under the covers beside her husband. "Hi," he whispered, giving her a kiss as she laid down.

"You've been awake this whole time?"

"You were gone," he reasoned, draping an arm over her side and pulling her closer. "I couldn't sleep. The worst sleep I've ever gotten were those two years they you were in Midgard and I was here."

"That's sweet, but… really?"

"You… I still have the dreams when you're here, but you help. You quiet them down a bit, even if you can't stop them completely," he confessed. "Do you know I how I knew you were meant to be here? How I knew I was supposed to keep you? The first time I had one of those dreams, the first time you were there, it wasn't as bad. They're always bad, but it was better with you there. It didn't worry you, you didn't ask. You just wanted to be there for me. And I knew."

Laurel was silent for a minute, infinitely glad that Loki couldn't read her thoughts like she had learned to read his, even with magic. "There's something I have to tell you," she blurted out, immediately regretting that she had spoken so soon.

"Yes?"

"I love you," she filled in, pulling the first thing she could think of out of her mind.

"I love you too," Loki smiled, pulling her in for another kiss. Laurel sighed, thinking that she would have to tell him soon. But not now. Not tonight.


	44. How Could I Be Mad?

A.N.: A short and sweet chapter that gets straight to the fluff. I've got some terribly angsty things planned and this made me so happy to write!

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Laurel came into the room where Loki was sitting, buried in his book. She walked over to him, setting a rather round tabby cat in his lap. "What is this?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as the cat began to meow at him.

"That, my dear, is a cat. Our cat."

"When did we get a cat? And how is he surviving in Valhalla? Wait, why did we get a cat?" Loki set his book aside.

"His name is Muffin, and he's surviving here magically. He kept wandering into the Sanctum, so I figured I'd keep him," Laurel explained, sitting down next to the two of them. "He was going to be the Sanctum's cat, but Wong's allergic, so I figured you and I could keep him. Besides, he'll keep you company when I'm not here."

Loki nodded, letting the cat sit down on him as they talked. "Interesting… why not give it to one of your students? Or bring it to the Avengers Facility?"

"I thought it would be nice to have a cat," Laurel frowned. "For us." _We'll have a lot more to look after soon enough. How are you going to bond with an actual child if you don't want to bond with a cat? You've gotta tell him. Soon._ "Loki, I… never mind."

"What's wrong?" he asked, slowly starting to let the cat. "You have that 'we need to talk' look on your face."

"It's nothing." Laurel got up, heading for the kitchen so she wouldn't have to look at him. "Do you want some coffee? I'm falling asleep on my feet, and we've got that dinner with your parents tonight. You know how they like to talk for ages."

"Alright. If something's bothering you -"

"Nothing is bothering me," she stressed, reaching into the fridge for some milk. She closed the door unnecessarily hard, Loki sighing, setting Muffin on the chair, and coming over to her. Without a word, he wrapped his arms around her as she stirred sugar into their mugs. Pecking her cheek, he reached out for a coffee mug, still not letting her move. "Fine, something is bothering me, but I'd rather talk about it later, okay? When we have time, when there's not a dinner to get ready for." She leaned her head back onto his shoulder, Loki realizing for the first time how truly exhausted she looked.

"Whenever you want to talk, love. There's no hurry."

"Thank you." Laurel turned to face him, giving her husband a kiss. "Please don't be mad at me when I tell you."

His eyebrows furrowed, Loki trying to make sense of what she had just said. "Do you still love me?"

"Of course I do!" She frowned, pretending to be offended at the question. It was a genuine worry for him, however. Many of the people who claimed to love him ended up betraying him, sometimes terribly. Like Odin.

"Is there someone else?" This was one of his great worries, she knew. No matter how many times Laurel reassured him that no one could compare, he was still insecure at his core. In front of the rest of the world, he walked around like a king. Most of the time, even just with her, he was sure of himself. But deep down, he feared that he was replaceable, that she would one day come to realize how unlovable he was and decide to leave.

Laurel, of course, would assure him that she would, "never want anyone other than you. Even if I have to say it a million times, I love you. I love all of you - when you're blue, when you're in any other form, when you can't even bring yourself to get out of bed. Even when you can't see how wonderful you are, I love you. It will always be you, just you. No one else."

"Then how could I be mad?" he smiled softly, kissing her again.

Laurel knew this was just to appease her, but it worked. She felt better, at least in the moment. But she still dreaded actually having to say the words, to tell him one of the few things he truly feared was really happening. "Good. It's nothing bad. Not really."

"Whatever's wrong, we'll sort it out together."

Leaning her forehead on his shoulder, Laurel nodded. _If only you knew. You'll be pissed, you'll be terrified… hell, it took me a bit to wrap my mind around it. But you… it'll scare the shit out of you. You're going to be mad, I know it. No matter how much you promise me otherwise._

"First, though, we have to get ourselves ready for dinner. There's some council Odin is hosting… not quite sure who they are, but they are a bunch of important people."

The two of them split off, going their separate ways to get ready. When Laurel came back to the living room, she found Loki sitting there, absentmindedly letting Muffin with one hand and holding a book in the other. She stood by the bedroom door for a second, watching them. The cat had taken to Loki already, casually purring from his perch on the arm of the chair. Loki looked up at her as she came over, a smile breaking on his face. "You two look so sweet."

"Ready, love?" Loki asked, giving her a kiss as he set his book aside. "You look absolutely stunning in green."

"Thank you," she smiled, taking his arm as they headed for the door. "I hate these dinners. Your parents aren't horrible hosts, but half of these committee members and counselors or whoever they are can't hold a decent conversation about anything. Or they ask dozens of questions about Midgard and never give me a chance to eat."

Loki couldn't help but smile at her. "How lucky am I to have a wife like you? It sounds strange even saying it - 'my wife'. I never thought I'd have someone like you."

"I never thought I'd marry a dead ancient prince-slash-god, and yet here I am," she answered, turning into the formal dining hall. "I really am lucky."

With that, they were plunged into a long night of boring conversations. The two of them dutifully entertained the men and women of an old security delegation, playing their pets as prince and princess. Laurel had to remind herself to turn down the dozen or so different kinds of wine they had offered, playing like she had a slight headache, which would only get worse if she drank. It was a decent excuse, one that Frigga supported because, as she explained to Odin after he insisted that she try a red wine, "Midgardians work differently, remember? Besides, they cannot handle as much as we can." What they thought would be a simple dinner stretched well into the night, Loki and Laurel finally saying their goodbyes and good nights well after ten at night.

"That was… something," Laurel sighed as they made their way back to their quarters. "I think I spent two hours talking about Asgardian metallurgy practices, and I never processed a word of it."

"Don't you just love being a princess?" Loki joked, unlocking their door.

"Only because it means I married the handsome prince." Dropping her high heels next to the door, Laurel sank into a chair, Muffin jumping up on her lap.

Loki shed his jacket, coming over to sit beside her. "Why don't you go change and we can talk? You haven't been all there for a while now."

Moving Muffin over to where Loki was sitting, Laurel got up, going to put her pajamas on. Loki, followed by their cat, came in a few minutes later. The cat perched on their bed as Loki went to change out of his formalwear, silently joining laurel at the bathroom sink. As she took her makeup off, he brushed his teeth, the silence hanging over them like an impending storm. "Please don't be mad," Laurel began, meeting his eye in the mirror as he rinsed his mouth out. "I don't know how to break this to you… I know we never planned on… we never thought of having a family while Thanos was still around, but..." She turned to face him, taking his hands gently. "Loki, I'm pregnant."

Several different emotions flashed through his eyes, Loki pulling her into a hug. Both of them knew it was more so he wouldn't have to continue meeting her eye, but Laurel let it happen anyway. "I love you."

"You're not mad?"

"How can I be mad? I played a part in this too." He sighed, confessing, "I'm… terrified. I have no idea… I haven't exactly had great fathers." He pulled her over to the bed, saying that he needed to sit down for a moment. Looking at her stomach, he had to ask, "How long have you known?"

"A few weeks. That makes it a little over a month old already. I don't know…" She took a deep breath, leaning on him as Loki wound a comforting arm around her. "I know this isn't what… when we wanted to do this, but… Loki, what are we going to do?"

He took a breath before answering. "We're going to have a baby. A wonderful child with a wonderful mother. And a father who is going to learn how to be… better than his own fathers were."

"You're really not mad?" Laurel questioned.

Kissing the top of her head, Loki simply told her, "No. I love you, and I love our child already. I have a lot to learn, but I'll manage. You know I always do." The two of them sat in silence for a moment before Loki said, "We're going to have to tell my mother and father soon. They will want to announce it to all of Valhalla."

"Not tonight."

"Not tonight," Loki conformed, moving so they could both lay down. "Not until we're ready to tell them."


	45. Start Spreading the News

A.N.: 10,000 views! Y'all are the best! Thank you for all of your views and messages of support - they all mean so much to me! - J

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Laurel rolled over in bed, reaching for Loki. The space next to her was empty, having grown cold in his absence. Sitting up in bed, she looked around, noticing that the glass door leading to the balcony was open. Loki was standing out there, his mouth clearly moving as he had a conversation with himself. Laurel lay back down before he could see her, projecting her astral form to listen in without looking like she had physically moved at all.

As her astral form got closer, she could hear some of what he was saying. She leaned on the door, listening to his dialogue. "... and how am I going to live up to the image she has in her head? She already thinks I'm going to be a great father…How in Hel am I going to be anything like what she's dreaming of? I'm not good... I'm a monster, and I'm going to mess this up, I know it. You're going to mess everything up, ruin this child's life, and she'll hate you." His voice grew quieter as he continued, "She'll hate you, she'll resent you, and then she'll leave. She hasn't left yet, but she will, once she realizes what you are, what you've done..."

Wishing more than anything that she could stand there with him, Laurel sighed, glad that he couldn't see or hear her. As far as he knew, she was still asleep. "How am I going to protect them? Laurel's a superhero, for Odin's sake. People go after their kids… No, you don't even know how to take care of a child…" He leaned on the stone railing of the balcony, continuing to worry. "She's going to be in so much pain and you won't be able to do anything. Living children have to be born outside of Valhalla… We've got to talk about that. Oh, gods, I can't leave here!"

He raked his hands through his hair, turning back to see if he had accidentally woken her up. Seeing that Laurel was still in bed, he looked back to the gardens and the sky that stretched out before him. "Eight months or so… eight months to read all of the books, eight months to get ready. It's going to be fine." Closing his eyes and bowing his head, Loki whispered to himself. "It's going to be fine. You can figure this out. Even living down here… you can figure this out. It won't make a difference where you like until he starts school… Laurel can do what she did to Thor to bring him here. And there are nurses here that can help take care of him. Yes, that could work. You're figuring it out already."

Laurel took a step back as Loki began pacing on the balcony, his hands clasped behind his back as he started listing things aloud. "Get all of the books you can find. Talk to her about delivering a baby on Midgard. And names. Talk to her about names. What if he hates me? What if he's just like me? Agh, at least he'll be half… her. He better take after her…"

Stopping to look out over the garden again, he fell silent. He bowed his head once again, his hair falling into his face. "You have to tell Mother and Odin tomorrow. They won't shut up about it… they're going to hover so much. A prince or princess would carry on the family line… Someone else in line for the throne, a fourth… Thor needs to tell Asgard… No one is going to leave us alone after tomorrow."

With a sigh, Laurel's astral form went back to her body. The now complete Laurel got out of bed, padding over to the balcony. As she cracked the door open, Loki spun around to face her. "Hey." She came over to give him a hug as he quickly tried to mask his feelings in front of her.

"You should be sleeping. You're not going to get much sleep after the baby's born," he advised, kissing the top of her head. "Don't worry about me, love.'

"How are you doing with all of this?" Laurel asked, winding her arms around him. "I'm sure it's got to be a lot on you too."

As they stood overlooking the palace gardens, he shrugged, admitting, "Decently. I have a lot of reading to get done."

"We both do," she laughed, hugging him tightly, "but we've got time. We can figure this out together. For now, though, we should probably go back to bed. We'll both need our rest, like you said."

Loki let her lead him back inside, laying down next to her and dutifully drawing his wife closer. "Do you think everything will change? Even more than it already has?"

"Yes. But we already live such strange lives… well, it will just be something else thrown into the mix. Our lives turn upside down once every few months, or so it seems. This'll just be another flip," she mused, laying her head on his chest and closing her eyes again. "The first big change is going to be telling everyone. I'll handle Thor and the rest of them on Midgard, if you want. If Steve hasn't told them already."

"Rogers knew before I did?" Loki frowned, kissing the top of her head. "How? Why?"

"He kind of showed up while I was freaking out," she admitted with a sigh. "I didn't want to tell him, but I kind of just… did. I had to. I couldn't stop hyperventilating, and then we were interrupted because of this mission, and, well, he chased me down when we got home and asked what was wrong. Besides, we've been friends for ages now. He's one of the first people I would have told anyway, even if our circumstances were more normal."

The two of them sat up talking for a while, trying not to focus on all of the hypotheticals, and instead thinking of everything they had to worry about, they thought up possible names and what color they would paint their child's room (they settled on green, of course). While Laurel was getting ready the next morning, Loki went to deliver the news to his parents, who immediately drafted a decree to be issued all over Valhalla by noon. By the time they went to breakfast, the servants had been informed, and the entire palace was buzzing about the whispered as she and Loki walked in, and as soon as Odin and Frigga saw the two of them, they came over, beaming. "Oh, congratulations, my dear," Odin told Laurel, giving her a strong hug. "Asgard's new prince or princess is lucky to have a mother like you."

"You are going to be spectacular," Frigga smiled, kissing her daughter-in-law on the cheeks. "I am so happy for the both of you, darling! You will be a wonderful mother."

Laurel thanked her, taking a seat next to Loki and preparing herself for the first of many conversations about their future, about what they planned on doing, and how they were thinking of negotiating their lives between Valhalla and Midgard. After breakfast, Laurel had the duty of going back to Earth and telling Thor, who would, in turn, announce the future prince or princess to all of Asgard. Thor was overjoyed when he heard the news, having spent a lot of time in Asgard and missing out on Steve telling the others.

"Congratulations!" He gave her a hug, asking how she was feeling and if she wanted to come with and make the announcement herself. This was no question, of course. They would be heading out after lunch, since Thor had a Security Council meeting to go to anyway.

All of Asgard seemed to turn up in the town square when Thor and Laurel arrived, applauding for the both of them. Thor stepped up to speak, announcing that there would be a public Security Council announcement issued later that afternoon, but first, Princess Laurel had something to say. He motioned for her to step forward, Laurel taking the podium and looking out over the crowd gathered before her.

"Hi," she smiled sweetly, telling them that, "I know I've been gone for a while, but there is something…" Laurel paused, finally admitting, "We have all been through a lot over the last few years. We have all lost friends, family, people that we love, to Thanos and his army. We have lost so much, much more than we can even begin to put into words. But, as we've seen, there is a lot of hope. We've come a long way from the scared refugees that we were when we first came here to Midgard. We've moved into a new age of Asgard, and a new age of Asgardians."

She looked to Thor, who nodded encouragingly. "This new age of Asgardians has brought me into the royal family, a responsibility that I treasure. Now, as you all know, I've been able to visit Valhalla and bring news back and forth. I've gotten married, and I am officially an Asgardian princess. And now… on behalf of my husband and I, and on behalf of the entire royal family, I am happy to announce that soon there will be a new Asgardian prince or princess." She put a hand to her stomach, continuing, "We are expecting a child."

The crowd erupted into applause, cheering loudly as Laurel tried to thank them, being drowned out by their clapping. People were taking pictures - she had introduced the Asgardians to Midgardian technology, and they had been taken with it immediately - and cheering for her, for Loki, for the royal family, for the future of Asgard. They would be celebrating all day, even when Thor and Laurel were sitting in a Security Council meeting.


	46. I Will Always Protect You

_The burning wreck of the Asgardian Statesman floated through space, sending out a pained distress signal. Laurel was clutching Loki's hand desperately, trying not to cry out after Thanos had stabbed Heimdall with one of their own weapons. Loki has reached out, holding up the Tesseract for Thanos to take._

 _Thanos picked up the glowing cube, effortlessly crushing it in his palm and removing the Space Stone to add to his gauntlet. In that moment, he became more powerful than any other being in the universe was or had ever been. Turning to his Black Order, he commanded them to, "Go. There are two more stones on Earth. Find them, my children, and bring them to me on Titan."_

 _Laurel had stepped forward a bit, taking Loki's hand and holding onto him for dear life. She could tell that he was plotting something, sizing up the situation with a quick glance. "Please don't do anything stupid," she whispered, not tearing her eyes from Thanos. She hovered inches from his ear, as close as she could be without attracting suspicion. "Please, Loki. I love you."_

" _Father, we will not fail you." One of the members of Thanos' army bowed to him, Thanos nodding and sending him off to continue the chaos that he was creating._

" _I love you," Loki whispered back in a tense voice, reluctantly letting go of her hand and stepping forward again. Laurel could tell he had a plan, but she could only hope that he hadn't miscalculated. Raising his voice, Loki addresses Thanos directly. "If I might interject… if you are going to Earth, you might want a guide. I do have a bit of experience in that arena."_

 _Laurel held her breath as Thanos scoffed at him. "If you consider failure experience."_

 _"Loki, please..." she mouthed, doing everything she could to keep herself quiet._

" _I consider experience experience," Loki responded, moving closer. "Almighty Thanos," he began to bow, "I, Loki, Prince of Asgard, Odinson, the rightful king of Jotunheim, God of Mischief, hereby pledge to you my undying fidelity." Laurel bit her lip, drawing blood as Loki bowed further. Suddenly, he lunged forward, a dagger drown._

 _Loki was fast, but Thanos was faster, seizing him by the neck, the dagger clattering to the ground. "Undying? You should choose your words more carefully."_

" _No!" Laurel lunged forward, running right into a forcefield that Thanos' Order had suspended her in. There was nothing she could do as she was forced to watch Loki start to choke, fighting to breathe. She could feel herself crying as she strained to break through the forcefield. Tears dripped down her cheeks, but she couldn't even blink, not taking her eyes off of the spectacle in front of her. She tried her best to loosen Thanos' grip on Loki, anything she could from across the room, but nothing was working. "No, please, don't - "_

" _You… will never… be a god," Loki choked, concentrating on fighting for every breath. Thanks just smiled at him as a gut-wrenching snapping echoed across the room. Laurel couldn't speak over the lump in her throat as Thanos threw Loki's body in front of her and Thor._

" _You're a monster," she finally managed, Thanos disappearing with his Order and dropping the enchantments that held them in place. Both she and Thor bolted for Loki as soon as they had been freed._

Laurel herself bolted up in bed, looking around to see that Loki was still asleep next to her. Taking a deep breath, she realized that it had been a dream. She dreamt of that day a lot, of how painful it had been to lose him. The dreams had gotten better when she found him in Valhalla, but they still appeared once in a while. Loki would also wake up in terror sometimes, dreaming of the tortures he had been subject to in the Asgardian dungeons. Sometimes he would cry out in pain, waking Laurel up in the process. This time, however, he was sleeping peacefully. As she raked a hand through her hair, Loki whimpered in his sleep. "Hun? Babe, c'mon, wake up."

 _The Asgardian dungeons were a cold, dark place. They always had been, but now, they had gotten even worse in the last few years. "Your birthright was to die," he mumbled, pacing in the tiny cell that he had been locked in for ages. "Your birthright was to die... Maybe he really is right."_

" _Get up," spat a guard, Loki raising an eyebrow as he watched another prisoner being led away to the lower levels of the dungeons. His neighbor would return a few hours later covered in bruises, bleeding, or in a stupor from being injected with all sorts if experimental drugs. Then it would be his turn, if he wasn't lucky enough to escape for another day._

 _That night he ended up laying in bed, trying to stem the bleeding from his shoulder, which had just begun healing from the last time he had been brought down to the torture rooms. Asgardian magic helped a lot, but it didn't fix everything. Most of all, it didn't fix the dull ache in his stomach, the looming sadness in the back of his mind, the awful sense of despair that hung over him like a storm cloud. He got up, walking to the wall that held him in. Looking out on the others in their cells, he watched as people paced, slept, or tended to their wounds._

 _Sinking down onto the ground beside his bed, Loki sighed, leaning his head on the cold metal bars of the bed frame. It was one of the only bits of relief that he had. When Frigga came to visit and everything was hushed up in front of her, he had some sense of calm, some sense of normal before being plunged back into the dark, twisted world of his torturers as soon as she left. There was no real "safe" in the dungeons, none at all._

" _There's got to be a way to end this," he mumbled, as not to alert the guards. They were patrolling the halls, like always, making sure no one was being disruptive. "There has to." But they had blocked most of his magic, not letting him have any way to escape. "You'd have to die. You'll have to die. Tomorrow, before they come and get you." He sighed, wiping at his eyes in frustration._

"Hun? Babe, c'mon, wake up." Laurel was shaking his shoulder, Loki slowly coming out of the dream and looking at her. She was sitting up in bed, looking like she had just woken up herself. She'd thrown her hair over her shoulder, yawning though she was consciously trying to slow her breathing. "You were about to start crying in your sleep. Oh, you are," she sighed, wiping his cheeks. "What dream was it this time?"

"What's wrong?" he asked, trying to distract her as he stretched. "You look like you woke up from an awful dream."

Laurel was too good for him, though. "It was that dream where Thanos killed you. Again. I think the baby's sapping all of my good memories and leaving me with these… But really, what were you dreaming about?"

"It's a story I never told you," he sighed, sitting up in bed and drawing her close. "You can't say anything until I'm done. You can't judge any of this either."

Wrapping her arms around him, Laurel promised that she would stay silent. "I won't judge, either. You know I don't. I'm used to hearing a whole lot of things from you."

"Very wall," he nodded, staring out of their wall of windows as he began his confession. "I spent so much time in the dungeons, in the torture chambers in Asgard, I couldn't see any way out. My mother was some solace, but she only visited a few times, when she could evade my father long enough to cast one of her holograms down there. There was nothing… you woke up, you were tortured, you were fed if you were lucky, tortured again, and then thrown into your cell and told to sleep. Who knew if it was really night or day… it hardly mattered to the guards. The weeks turned into months, that all stretched into years. There… it really seemed like there was no way out of there. That's what I was dreaming about - the hopelessness, the despair, all of it. About how… how I had planned on…"

Laurel hugged him tightly, kissing his cheek. "I know. I saw it, that night when I accidentally read much more of your mind than I had planned on. I didn't know what it was - where it was - but I could feel it, the overwhelming sadness, the dolor of spending months not being able to feel anything more than the heaviness of the world. I could feel it. I'm sorry. But can I ask something? What stopped you?"

"I was released the next day. It's better now," he promised, kissing the top of her head. "It's better now that I'm out of there and that I've found you. Even when you scare the Hel out of me, on missions where you almost get yourself killed, I know you'll come home. It makes me feel a whole lot better."

"Thank you for protecting me on those missions, by the way," Laurel said. "Even from here, I know you're… working your magic. And waiting for me to come home. It's a good motivator."

"It was nothing," he replied, shaking his head. "Besides, you protect me all of the time."

She raised an eyebrow, looking to Loki curiously. "Me? You're an incredibly powerful god, a sorcerer… What could I possibly protect you from that much?"

"Myself," he admitted, his voice low. He wouldn't meet her eye, but Laurel could feel the pain in his voice. She had felt it before, when she was inside his head.

Her voice softened as she answered, Laurel simply saying, "Oh." Pulling him closer, she had to add, "I love you. And I will protect you as much as you need me to."

* * *

A.N.: Sorry if updates aren't as regular - I'm going through a whole grad school loans process rn that's eating up a lot of my time. But I'll write as much and update as often as I can!


	47. The Mission

A.N.: Gonna be real honest with you all... I love writing, I really do. But I have limited time nowadays, because of grad school stuff that my parents aren't really supportive of. Don't worry, they're nothing like Frigga and Odin, but I've got to be even more concentrated in what I'm doing. I'll write as much and as often as I can. Thank you all for being so supportive and understanding.

* * *

When Laurel arrived at the Sanctum, Wong was busy teaching their class of recruits how to cast protective shields around other people. They had all mastered casting them over themselves, but expanding the protective shielding was imperative in battle. It was nice to be there, watching the trainees practice. She had been between Valhalla and Asgard for two weeks now, missing out on a lot of the things that she loved about teaching and training her students.

Loki was keeping busy in Valhalla, decorating a room there for the baby and designing plans for an exact duplicate in the Sanctum. No living child could stay in Valhalla all of the time, but with Laurel being the new Goddess of Death, she could shield their child for a while. Just like spending some time in the sun does a body good, spending a little time in the mortal world would be essential for their child. Frigga had been helping him, and even Odin stopped in from time to time to check on their progress.

Frigga was prepared to be a wonderfully doting grandmother. It had been centuries since she had had young children in the house, and she was eagerly looking forward to hearing little footsteps running down the halls and the bubbly laughter of a child echoing in the vast rooms of the palace. She was delighted to help decorate the nursery, coming up with dozens of ideas to present to Loki and Laurel.

Odin, while not as involved, was also looking forward to having another child in the house. Continuing the royal line meant that Asgard had a future. Watching as it was destroyed, and then as half of the population had been massacred, had taken a toll on him. Now that there would be another royal child, he felt a lot more secure in regards to the future of Asgard, its rulers, and the welfare of its people. He would stop by once or twice to see how they were progressing, offering his constructive criticism even though Loki never asked.

It was nice to be somewhere where she was looked up to as a teacher and not as a princess. Laurel stepped to the front of the room, Wong quieting their students as she began to speak. "You all are doing pretty well with this one, but I'm seeing some of you not remembering to keep the shield around yourselves. It won't do any good shielding another person if you get hurt, because then you'll both be open to an attack. Let's grab partners and keep going. By the end of the day I want you in threes - one of you shielding, one of you being shielded, another other hurling low-level injury spells. Bruises and surface wounds only, please."

The students paired up, starting to cast defensive shields around each other as Laurel and Wong inspected their progress. "They have been doing remarkably well," Wong told her, pausing in front of a pair that were already trying to cast spells and attack each other at the same time. "This new training program is doing wonders for them."

The new training programs at the Avengers Facility were working wonders too. Tony had revamped the gym, and everyone had committed to increasing their training time as they began to put together a plan for fighting Thanos. "What are you doing down here? You can't be training, you're three months pregnant!" Steve hopped off of his treadmill to give her a sweaty hug.

"I'm just coming by to say hi, don't worry," she laughed, Steve reaching for his water bottle. "Besides, I can still train. I might not be able to keep up with you, but I can still walk, can't I? Archery and firearms training won't hurt. And I can do all the yoga I want."

"Hey, you, how's it going? You're starting to look… well, less in shape than ever," Nat smiled, coming over from the practice room she had just left. "Do you know if we've got any more ammo down here, or am I going to have to head for the actual weapons cache?"

Laurel laughed, putting a hand to her stomach and saying, "Thanks. I have no clue about the ammo, but I do know that I'm going to grab a snack soon. You have a taste for anything?"

"Nothing in particular," Nat shrugged. "I'm going to rifle through the cabinets down here and see what I can find, but I'll see you for that snack, okay? You've got to tell me all about what's going on in Valhalla." She left the two of them standing there, Steve leaning against the treadmill and shrugging.

"She's bent on mastering some new skills by dinner. You should stay, by the way. It's just the three of us and Bruce. The others are off meeting with Agent Ross. You remember him, right?"

"Yeah. He's a nice guy. I'm glad we've got him on our side. They're filling us in on this meeting later, aren't they? I mean, I might not be the Queen of Asgard, but I do occupy a decent position on their Security Council, and I'm a member of the royal family," she shrugged. "I kind of want to know what they're planning."

Steve agreed. "Nat and I only stayed behind because we had some catching up to do on all of our paperwork and things like that. We'd be there if we could've left as soon as we got up, but I've been stuck behind a computer for most of the day, and you know how that goes."

She had to laugh at the thought. Steve had gotten a lot better at using computers, but still had trouble with basic things. Tony had to constantly debug his computer, and yet Steve would still end up clicking on suspicious links or "you've won a prize" notifications. He had learned a lot, though, and he was trying his best. Thor was just as bad, often requiring help from one of the others. "Well, I'm sure I'll be able to find some time to look over everything -" She was interrupted by the beeping of their comms units.

"We've got to go," Steve sighed, reaching over to turn his treadmill off. "There's an emerging situation over in Moldova. We should be back by tonight." Laurel followed him as he headed for his quarters, reading voer the information that scrolled across the face of her watch. "You should stay here."

"Like hell. I'm going with you. It's just you, Nat, and I. You need as much help as you can get," she resolved, fishing her keys out of her pocket. "I'll stay by the jet, I promise. But you're going to need help."

Steve frowned, but finally assented when he realized that they were wasting time arguing about it. "Alright, just be careful. I'll see you on the jet in ten minutes."

They did end up needing Laurel's help. It was a tough battle from the moment they landed in the middle of a forest, arriving in an eerie silence. Swearing that she wouldn't venture far from the ship, Laurel watches as Nat and Steve left, sneaking up a hill towards where a fortress concealed a group of hostages. The two of them crept forward slowly, Laurel watching from the windows of the disguised jet as they disappeared into the forest, concealed by trees.

She sat down after they were concealed by the trees, trying to put together a mental picture of what they were going to be walking into. _Solid stone walls, two entrances, trapdoor on the inside._ It was a skill that she rarely got to use any more, but being able to put together perfect mental maps of the area from her astral projections. Being able to float through walls was certainly helpful when charging into unknown territory. _No windows on the outside, a couple inside the main walls. Everything based around the courtyard. Outside fence, cameras on every corner -_ "Shit."

Laurel got up, sprinting for the others as fast as she could. She tried to warn them, tried calling their comms units, but nothing was working. They all had a signal, but none of them were answering. Luckily, their trackers were working. She caught up to Nat first, approaching from the front so she wouldn't get injured by accident. "There's a minefield a couple of yards ahead," Laurel whispered. "It's pretty new, from what I can tell, so the grass is going to be a bit disturbed."

Nat nodded, telling her that Steve was headed for the other side of the compound. "If you can get a message through to him, let me know. I'll keep an eye on my comms unit."

She ducked behind another tree, drawing a gun as Laurel went around the other side, keeping her eyes peeled. Steve was a bit ahead of her, Laurel darting between trees as he crept forward. Steve took a step, Laurel realizing how close to the minefield he was. "Steve, no!" she hissed, reaching out without thinking. A ball of yellow light encased him as he stepped, inadvertently setting off an explosion. Astonished, he looked back at her with a smile. As the dust settled, she set him down far from the strip of mines. "Careful," she laughed, giving him a hug as the golden sphere dissipated.

"Thanks. Now get back to the jet," he instructed, making her frown a bit. "Go, really. We can do this on our own. You shouldn't be putting yourself in danger for us."

Laurel would have listened, had there been more of them there. But it was just her, Steve, and Nat, and there was no way that she was going to let them fight without her. So she let Steve go, turning herself invisible before following him, taking careful steps to avoid the rest of the land mines. For a while, she followed him towards the fortress, but eventually broke off to stalk the back entrance of the fortress.

When they were finally back on the jet, Laurel reappeared, just as covered in dirt and ash as the others were. It was Nat who asked the question first. "You didn't stay on the jet, did you? Well, you didn't go back after you saved Steve."

Biting her lip, Laurel had to admit that she hadn't. "You know how those guys kept falling off of the exterior walls? Well, you can do a whole lot of damage and cause a hell of a lot of chaos when you're invisible. It wasn't anything serious, though, don't worry." She sat back in her chair, suddenly exhausted. "Is anyone else starving?"

"We've got a couple hours on the plane, and then we can order some food," Nat suggested as she grabbed a bottle of water. "I'm thinking Greek. There's a great place fifteen minutes from the facility."

Laurel dozed off as they made their way back to the facility, thinking of how she should text Loki that she would be late. She was woken up by an abrupt landing, jolting awake in her seat. "We're home," Steve announced, shaking Nat's shoulder and telling her that it was time to get up.

Stretching, Laurel got up, making sure she had her keys and her phone in her pockets before following the others off the jet. Almost immediately, she was hit by a sharp pang of pain radiating through her abdomen. "Steve!" He turned around from his position on the stairs. Immediately, he began to worry, noticing how white her face had turned. "Steve, something's wrong."

He rushed back up the stairs, putting an arm around her and helping her down from the jet. "You need a doctor."

"No shit. I also need to call Loki. He… he needs to know. I still haven't told him that I'm going to be home late. And that he needs to feed the cat."

"Don't worry, I'll find a way to get ahold of him. Nat!" Nat spun around to look at the two of them making their way into the facility. "We're gonna need some help."


	48. Lost

"This can't be happening," Laurel cried, Steve standing by the side of her bed and holding her hand as they waited. She had a vice-like grip, but he didn't mind. "Steve, I don't… this can't be -"

"Ma'am, I'm sorry, but there's one more form. Your husband can sign the rest for you while you're in surgery," a nurse offered, handing over a clipboard. "It just says that you've been informed about everything we're going to do and that you're okay with it, no extra measures."

"He's not my husband," Laurel said, signing and passing the clipboard back without reading any of the papers. "He's… the baby's father's dead. Car accident. I didn't even know… I didn't know I was pregnant until after he died." The nurse nodded, telling her they someone would be by to put her under soon. They were left alone for a moment, Laurel turning back to Steve. "Can you tell Loki what's going on? My phone's in the drawer right there. I texted and told him that I was going to the hospital, that he shouldn't worry. I'm going to be out in a few minutes, so he's going to need someone to explain it all to him. I know it's not… I know you two aren't super close, but could you please do this for me?"

Steve fished her phone out of the drawer, assuring her that, "It's not a problem, really. Nat's talking to the others now. They're going to try to be back here by the time you wake up, even though they're still a while away."

"If it's not a problem, I'd kind of rather they not. I mean, I'll have to talk to Thor, since this is technically royal family business that he needs to know about right away," she sighed, watching as a squadron of nurses made their way into the room. "But I really don't want to talk to all of them. I'm sure they'll get it. Is it time?"

"It is," her doctor confirmed, checking the IV line running into the crook of her arm. "I'll switch the bags in just a second, and you should be out a minute or two later, if that. You won't feel a thing."

Steve bent to give her a hug, volunteering to walk with the rest of them as far as the doctor would let him. "I'll be waiting outside the operating room," he promised, squeezing Laurel's hand as she watched the doctor start dripping anesthesia into her arm. "I'll take care of everything else."

When the phone call came, Loki was up in the library, trying to bide his time until Laurel got home. Frigga had been the one to pick up his phone, since he had left it over by her chair. She was still in awe of Midgardian technology, even though Laurel had been living there (and had shown her how to use phones and laptops) for a while now. She listened, nodding and growing more and more concerned as Steve talked. "I'll let him know. Thank you, Captain Rogers." Setting the phone down, she turned to Loki, who was listening attentively.

Immediately he knew that something was wrong. Frigga's face had softened as she got up to hug him without a word. Something was weighing on her. "What is it, Mother?"

"Laurel is… in the hospital," she explained, trying to phrase everything carefully. "Captain Rogers says that she is going into surgery. She should be alright, but the baby…" Frigga bit her lip, shaking her head just a bit. "The baby is not going to make it. They already know. Loki, I'm so sorry."

Loki stood up slowly, setting his book down in his chair and walking over to the window. He looked over Valhalla, his hands clasped behind his back as he thought of a million things at once. Frigga came to stand beside him, putting a hand on her son's shoulder. He didn't meet her eye, instead preferring to gaze out to the window, watching the moon. "That is the danger of a Jotun having a child with a human. An Asgardian, perhaps, but a Frost Giant… Sometimes it works out well, but others…" She shook her head sadly, trailing off.

"You don't think I know that?" Loki's voice was low, like he was desperately trying to keep control of it. "You don't think I feared that the moment she told me? You don't think I worried every time she went to the doctor - worried that they would find something wrong, that they would know this child isn't all the way human, that there would be something they would find and… I have been terrified from the moment I found out."

"Loki, this is not your fault," she offered earnestly.

Finally turning to her, Loki kept his expression stone cold. "You said it yourself, Mother. A Frost Giant having a child with a human is unnatural, and can cause problems. You should go."

"Loki -"

He looked back to the window, again refusing to meet her eye. "Mother, you should go."

"Alright," Frigga assented, "but should you need anything, or should you want someone to talk to, I will not be far." She reluctantly left him alone there, staring out the window but not really seeing anything.

He took a deep breath as the door clicked shut, waiting a couple of seconds before grabbing his things and heading for his quarters. As soon as he had locked the door, he sank to the ground, raking his hands through his hair. He could feel the repressed tears burning his cheeks now, dripping down his face as he tried to catch his breath. Laurel was on Midgard, going through one of the worst experiences of her life. Without him. There was no way he could be with her from Valhalla, and that made it even worse. He knew that she wasn't completely alone - Rogers must have been there, since he had called. He was too nice to do anything but stay by his friend's side as much as he could. But still, there was no way her husband could be with her, and it pained him greatly.

"I can't," he whispered, numbly staring at the ground, watching as tears bounced off of the tile. "I can't.. I want to be there. But Valhalla's eating away at me… there's no way I can return to Midgard now. Oh, Laurel, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Oh gods, I'm sorry!" He practically jumped up, starting to pace and praying that he would get another call soon.

Steve spent his time holding a vigil outside of the operating room, filling the others in on what was going on. Nat had run for some coffee, coming back with a cup for him too. To keep a low profile, they had signed in with different names, Nat claiming to be Laurel's sister. "He's got to be the new boyfriend. He's so supportive… I wish! You know, he looks kind of like Captain America," one of the nurses whispered, trying to keep her gossip within the nurses' station.

Nat rolled her eyes, listening in as the handful of nurses talked. "No, he looks more like that guy from… oh, what was that show called again?"

"Nah, definitely Captain America. It's funny, watching all of these guys trying to look like him or Thor or Tony Stark, it's ridiculous."

"Tony says they'll be here in twenty minutes," Steve said, taking a sip of his coffee. "We've got to head them off."

When Laurel woke up, she could hardly open her eyes. Lying in bed for a moment, keeping her eyes closed, she could tell that there was someone sitting in the room with her. She prayed that it wasn't an entire group of Avengers. Opening her eyes slowly, she was glad to see that it was only the blurry outlines of Thor and Steve, both of them talking as quietly as they could. "Hey," Steve said, the corner of his mouth turning slightly upwards as she came out of the anesthesia. "They said everything went perfectly. You should be able to leave in the morning." Steve got up, squeezing her hand and adding, "Nat's taken the others home. I'm going to grab a cab and let you two talk. I'm sorry, again. G'night, Laurel."

"'Night, Steve." She waited until he had left, making sure the door had closed before she looked back to Thor, who had been patiently waiting. "I'm sorry. I know I was supposed to produce an heir to the throne -"

"That's nonsense," Thor scoffed, waving off the idea. "I'm just glad you're alright. You gave us a heck of a scare for a while there, or so I heard. Overheard. The doctors say you were in surgery a lot longer than they expected, since you kept bleeding. None of this is your fault. You might be the Goddess of Death, but you can't stop the course of nature any more than you can stop the flow of time. There will always be an heir to the Asgardian throne. Asgard always has a hero able to take over the throne should we need one. You shouldn't be worrying about that now. Just worry about getting better."

Laurel slowly sat up in bed, reaching for a glass of water. "What am I going to tell Loki? How am I going to tell Loki?"

"They already told him," Thor admitted, leaning in to talk. "They called him while you were in surgery. I… I've prepared a general statement for Asgard, if you'd like me to make one on your behalf."

"If you could. Please. Please take care of it, because.. I can't," she sighed, leaning back in her bed. "I can't even think right now. I can't." She sniffled a bit, reaching for the box of tissues next to her bed. "We were narrowing down baby names last night, and now…" Suddenly the tears began to fall, Laurel not able to hold them back any longer. "Now look where I am. I was going to have a baby."

Thor took her hand, saying, "I'd give you a hug, but they told us all to be careful. I'm so sorry, Laurel. Of all people to go through something like this… you don't deserve any of it. I'm sorry."

"Thank you." She slowly sat up to give him a hug, thanking him for being there as she tried to fight back the wave of paint hat hit her. "Can you hand me my phone? I need to call Loki. I'm sorry but I'm getting really tired and I need to tell him I'm awake." They said their goodbyes, Thor heading out as Laurel called her husband, biting her lip in fear of what he would have to say.

Loki picked up on the first ring, clearly having been holding his phone and praying for a call to come through. "How are you feeling, love?" His voice was gentle, the voice he used when she was sick or when she came home from a battle with more serious wounds than usual. "Laurel, I love you so much. I wish… I would give my arm to be there with you right now. I'm so sorry I couldn't -"

"Loki," she interrupted, "I'm sorry. I lost… I'm sorry. I love you so much, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is my fault completely. I was out on a mission, and I know that's what did it. I just know it."

There was no way she would listen if he told her to stop apologizing, so Loki sat and listened, just glad that he could hear her voice. Eventually, Laurel made him promise to stay on the phone with her until one of them fell, she was the one to fall asleep first, the phone laying on the pillow next to her. Loki was still packing in his quarters, incredibly thankful that Laurel was alive and yet feeling a deeper sense of loss than he had ever felt before.


	49. Back to Valhalla

Laurel was released the next day, but Steve forced her to stay in the Avengers Facility, justifying it by saying that if they needed to go back, it would be far faster to get to a hospital from there than from Valhalla. In no place to object, Laurel assented, getting into the car with him and Bruce, who had come to pick her up with Steve. She talked to no one, instead going to lie down in her quarters and call Loki again. She had been on the phone with him almost constantly. Even if they didn't say anything to each other, just having him there on the phone made her feel marginally better.

Loki was sitting in Valhalla, calmly trying to read to her aloud from a book of magic he had discovered in the archives, when Steve walked in, softly knocking on Laurel's door. "Hey," he gave her a sad smile, offering a plate of leftovers. "I thought you'd like some lunch."

"Is that Rogers?" Loki asked as Laurel sat up in bed, reaching out for her friend. "What's he doing there? Rogers, let her rest. Or let her come back to me. She doesn't need to be worked up about anything right now."

"Yeah. Thanks, Steve." She took the plate, Steve sitting down next to her. "Loki, I'll call you back in a minute, okay? Steve's here with lunch. Yeah, I'll be okay for a bit. I'll come home as soon as I can, okay? Yeah, probably after dinner. They want to keep me here in Midgard for a bit. Bye, Loki. I love you."

As soon as she had hung up, Steve gave her a hug, saying that the others sent their best wishes but knew that she really didn't want to see all of them for the time being. "Thor has already made the announcement to Asgard. They're in a week of mourning," he told her, watching as she slowly started eating. "They've gone into a week of mourning, and they've dedicated themselves and their new medical center to research. They're planning on naming it after you, if what I remember is right."

"That's… that's great," Laurel managed to smile, still trying to fight back her tears. "That's great. I… thank you, Steve. You've been more of a help than you know."

Steve gave her a hug, standing to say, "Let me know before you leave, alright? I know you're trying to keep a low profile, but I'd at least like to say goodbye, okay?"

"Yeah, I will. Thanks, Steve." She watched him go, leaning back in bed to continue eating. As soon as she had gotten a couple of bites down, she realized how hungry she was. Better to eat now than to feast in Valhalla. They would want to talk to her there too, surely. But she knew that she wasn't going to be up for it.

A few hours later, Laurel was back in Valhalla, finally cleared by Steve and the others to go home. She appeared to Frigga and Odin first, both of them dropping what they were doing and coming to give her a hug. Frigga just sighed, telling her kindly that she had relatives who had gone through the same thing and if there was anything she would need, all she had to do was ask. Odin seemed more withdrawn, not knowing quite what to do, but deciding on hugging her anyway. "We should let Loki know you're here," Frigga said practically, steering her towards the hall and pointing her in the direction of Loki's quarters.

Laurel heard the door close behind her, all of the warm welcomes suddenly disappearing. She held her hand over the doorknob for what seemed like ages, trying to figure out what she would tell Loki. There was nothing, nothing at all that she could think of. No way of telling him, no way of making real what Steve had said over the phone. She knew that Steve had tried to soften the blow, but no matter what, it still wouldn't be enough. Before she could come up with anything to say, the door swung open in front of her. "Mother, kindly leave me alone - oh. Laurel…" The pain in his eyes was something terrible, something she had hardly ever seen before.

Reaching forward to hug him, she said nothing, Loki pulling her into his arms in response. "I'm sorry," she managed to sniffle, "for everything. I'm so sorry. I couldn't even -"

"No," he interrupted, steering her into his quarters and helping her shed her coat. He guided her to their bedroom, going to make tea while she put on her pajamas. When he rejoined her, handing over a mug, he gave her a kiss, adding, "Love, you've done nothing wrong. Really, you haven't."

"Okay. Thank you, Loki, but you know I don't feel much like talking about this." Laurel set her cup of tea down before she lay down, turning to face the wall. "I don't want to talk much about this at all. Not now, anyways."

Loki climbed into bed with her, draping his arm over his wife. "Laurel, love, really. I'm not mad at you. I could never be mad at you about this. None of this was your fault. It's nature. It happens," he sighed. "There's no explanation, it just… happens sometimes. I can't blame you, because I can't blame anyone. There are plenty of things we can't control, and this is one of them."

She rolled over to face him, her eyes filling with tears. "It was awful not having you there, Loki. Going through this on my own - well, Steve was there, but that doesn't count - going through this without you, Loki… I'm sorry. I'm sorry I lost our child. Our child, Loki." Laurel buried her head in his chest, Loki holding onto her tightly. "I lost our child, and I know it was all because of me, because I overextended myself on that mission, I…"

"It's alright, love. I know you didn't plan on this. I know you did everything you could, fought with everything you had, for this child. There is nothing you would have fought for more." He ran a hand through her hair, adding, "I wish more than anything that I could've been there with you, holding your hand. I had to watch everything from here, and it… it broke my heart. I would have given anything to have been there with you. I love you, Laurel, and I'm sorry."

"Thank you," she sobbed, tearfully continuing, "I would have… I wanted nothing more than having you there to hold my hand. I wish I could've… I wish none of this ever happened. I wish we could have our happy little family, even jumping between Valhalla and the rest of the mortal world. You, and me, and the baby, and our cat… I wish we could live something even a little closer to normal. I wish we didn't have to play this superhero/supervillain game, I wish we didn't have all of the scars… Loki, I've got this gruesome scar, this… they don't know if I'll be able to have children, Loki. Ever."

"Love, you know we can never live normal lives. You know," he sighed, placing a cool hand on her back, "we can always adopt. There is always a way, if we ever want to have children. And scars… scars can always be covered up with magic, healed with Asgardian magic, especially surgical scars. They're easy. And besides, love, you know I have plenty of scars of my own. I cannot say they would match, but… I've never minded scars. You're still beautiful, love. You always will be."

Laurel muttered something in response, Loki continuing to run his hand through her hair. They stayed like that for a long time, Laurel eventually falling into a restless sleep. Loki held onto her tightly, even when she woke up in the middle of the night, still in tears.


	50. Loki's Confession

Laurel woke up to find Loki coughing a bit, not wanting to disturb her but clearly in pain. His hand was hovering over her own, which sat next to his collarbone. "Hey, I… sorry," she said with a yawn, sitting up in bed. "Are you alright? Did I hit you in my sleep?"

He coughed again, finally whispering, "I know it's you, and I know you would never try to hurt me, but please… don't touch my neck."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" She drew away immediately, taking his hand instead. "I didn't even realize… I did it in my sleep. I'm sorry."

Loki sat up, giving her a kiss. "No, love, it's alright. I understand, you didn't mean to do anything. It's just that… well, you know how I ended up here in Valhalla. I still have dreams about it, and they terrify me every time. I'm sorry, love, but it still reminds me… I know it's you, but I can't help but to think..."

"I'm sorry," she sighed, turning so that she sat beside him. In an attempt to change the subject, she had to ask, "Are your parents going to make us go to their banquet thing this morning? They were supposed to have some noble family in for breakfast."

"Hmm, I doubt it, considering the circumstances," Loki frowned, thinking out loud. "And even if they do want us there, I can send a couple of holograms to fill in our seats. It's not complicated magic by any stretch."

"Good." Laurel lay back down, vanishing the ball of light that Loki had conjured a little while before. Loki raised an eyebrow, Laurel suggesting, "C'mon, let's go back to sleep." He nodded, laying back down beside her, As Laurel snaked an arm over his stomach and he would his arm around her shoulders, she sighed, adding, "I love you."

"I love you too."

 _Laurel wound her arms around Loki, the god paying no attention at all. When he finally turned to face her, he was sneering, Laurel stepping back and letting him leave the kitchen, a cup of tea in hand. She shrugged it off - he could be temperamental even at the best of times, and this wasn't the best of times. Thor had come by more often in the last few days on Asgardian business, which Loki found to be extremely annoying, especially when he was trying to read. Other people invading his - their - library unnecessarily annoyed him, no matter who it was. At first, he had even been annoyed that she was there, but she had been incredibly persistent, to the point that he had to give up some of his territory and eventually began warming up towards her._

 _That night, she got up to find Loki sitting in the living room, reading in front of a crackling fire. Without a word, she went to get a drink, making the two of them cups of tea before padding over and handing him a mug. He accepted it without looking up, Laurel sitting down beside him and leaning her head on his shoulder. Loki put his arm around her as he continued reading._

 _Suddenly there was a noise across the compound, Loki bolting up and inching away from her. A half-asleep Tony stumbled down the stairs, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge before sleepily going back up the stairs without acknowledging either one of them. Laurel shrugged and leaned back onto Loki, noticing how he had tensed up a bit. "Something wrong?" she had to ask, looking up at him and raising an eyebrow. "Tony just does that sometimes. Personally I think he sleepwalks, but he says he remembers it."_

" _Hmm." Loki pursed his lips, confessing that, "I'm sorry about earlier. But I cannot look weak in front of them. They've trapped me here, but they cannot make me weak."_

" _So you think I make you look weaker?" Laurel sat up again, picking up her cup of tea._

" _Emotion makes me look weaker," he corrected. His voice softened a bit as he added, "You make me feel a lot. But I cannot let them see that, I cannot let them see me as just as weak as they can be... I would not expect you to understand it, love."_

 _Laurel was quiet for a second. "You just called me 'love'."_

" _Yes. And?" He looked up from his book, deciding to mark the page and set it aside for a moment. "Does it bother you?"_

" _No, but I think they would see you as a lot less dangerous. Not weak, but… they think you're biding your time, plotting against them. That you'll sneak up and murder them in their beds if they're not careful. They won't say it, but they're afraid. Even Nat… well, Nat knows she could take you in a fight, but she also thinks you might be plotting something. If you let them see… you don't have to do much, since I know you're not comfortable with… affection like that in front of people, but I think it might help them to be a little less afraid of you. And they might trust you more," she suggested, reaching for his hand._

 _Loki frowned, telling her that, "On Asgard, we were not shown too much affection. Well, Thor was the star child from the beginning. Our mother loved us both, but my father… my father kept me around as a way to keep a vague peace with Jotunheim. I… I can promise you that I will do my best to try, but…" He leaned in to kiss her, cutting off his response. "I don't think I ever saw my parents as much as kiss each other on the cheeks in public, but for you, I will try."_

Laurel woke up with Loki's arms still wrapped around her, holding her as tightly as he dared, even in his sleep. Smiling to herself, all she could think of was how far he had come, from not wanting to express any sort of emotion or affection in front of other people to hardly wanting to let her go. He would proudly parade her around a gala or a ball, not letting her out of his sight as they danced and laughed together, the others in Valhalla smiling at their prince who was finally so happy with someone else in his life. They could be seen sipping wine together at formal state dinners and spotted wandering the gardens hand-in-hand. If anyone looked up over their homes at night and really concentrated on the side of the palace, they would see the two of them absentmindedly conjuring sparks or balls of light as they read out of the veranda. No one would have guessed that Loki was the same prince who refused to hold her hand in front of anyone for a very long time.

"Loki," she whispered, giving him a kiss, "I think it's way past breakfast time. We should probably get up. I don't really want to, but it's a good idea."

"Mmm," he yawned, lazily rolling over to be able to look at her. Sue enough, sunlight was streaming in through the bay window behind him. "We can just have them bring something up. No, I can summon something. I for one do not feel like moving today, and I believe you need to take all the time you want before returning to your royal duties."

Laurel bit her lip, confessing that, "I'm not supposed to return to some of them for a few weeks, according to the Midgardian doctors."

"Well then, all the better when you are finally able to resume them," he shrugged, sitting up and conjuring breakfast for the both of them. "Tea or coffee?"

"Coffee," she yawned, curling up next to him and reaching for a plate. "Thank you, Loki. For all of this. For everything you've done, and for all of the… everything you've had to deal with. I love you."

"I love you too," he beamed, watching his wife practically inhale her breakfast. He had to smile to himself as she pushed a bit of red hair out of her eyes, reaching for the glasses that she had so precariously balanced on the top of her head. Having to watch her ordeal from Valhalla had broken his heart. Frigga had been there, trying to offer some sort of comfort, until he had snapped at her, knowing that while he was losing so much, it was a thousand times worse for Laurel in Midgard. But he felt a twinge of guilt, something that Laurel had picked up on.

"What's wrong? You're not eating," she observed, reaching for her coffee. "Aren't you hungry?"

He shook his head, saying, "I keep thinking about how I couldn't be with you… how Rogers had to be the one to get you through everything and deal with all of the doctors. I wish I could have been there to hold your hand through it all, but Valhalla's eaten away at my soul."

"What do you mean?" Laurel raised an eyebrow. "You're dead, you can't leave Valhalla anyway. I mean, I might be able to take you with me for a bit, but you essentially can't leave here."

"Well…" Loki bit his lip, realizing that he had said too much. "In that case, there's something I should tell you…"


	51. Mea Culpa

"Wait a second, let me get this straight - you're not dead?" Laurel was sitting up in bed now, leaning against the wall as Loki tried to figure out how to explain it all to her. "I cried for you! I mourned for you, I… I gave you an Asgardian funeral!" She got out of bed, pacing to the other side of the room in frustration. Her knuckled had turned white clutching her cup of coffee. "How are you in Valhalla and not dead? Why don't we start with that one?"

Loki took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice somewhat soft as he explained how he had escaped from the _Statesman_ well before it had looked like Thanos had killed him. "I'm a Jotun, remember? Wouldn't the magic have dissipated? I would have turned blue if I had died there. I would have turned back to the way I looked when I was born. This," he gestured to himself, "is the illusion I choose to put up, but without magic, I would - you've seen it. Besides, who tries to kill a Titan armed with some of the most powerful weapons in the universe with a dagger?"

"I thought something was off, the way you threatened him… it didn't make sense in my head. One dagger, against Thanos? And with your non-dominant hand? I didn't have time to process it, though," she admitted. "But how are you in Valhalla, then?"

"I've been hiding out here. Thanos promised that he would hunt me down and kill me - make me beg for death, for the release form pain. But in Valhalla, he has no dominion. Being in Valhalla for so long, though, it eats away at your soul, at the living part of it, trying to keep it for itself." he confessed, trying to explain how this was actually one of the safest options. "He cannot get to Valhalla, no matter how hard he tries, because he cannot control the dead. I was only able to get in because of Odin and Frigga."

Laurel crossed her arms, regarding him coolly. "So you let me think you were dead for years, let Thor and I give you a proper funeral, let me struggle to bend the natural rules of magic jut to find you -"

"I did it for you," he blurted out, making Laurel even more mad. "Thanos wouldn't have just tortured me. He would have hunted down everyone I care about and tortured them in front of me. He would have brought you to the brink of death so many times, you would have been in almost eternal agony. He would have found my brother, massacred all of Asgard slowly and painfully… he would have saved you, though. I would have had to watch you die in every way imaginable, and there would have been nothing I could do. I had to hide out here, if not for my safety then for that of everyone else that I care about."

When she opened her mouth, Laurel's voice had dropped, becoming deadly cold. "You made me hunt for you, you made me do everything I could for years… I broke so many rules, bent so many laws of magic as far as they could go… I did all of that for you. And then I got here, I became the new Goddess of Death just so I could stay here with you, and now I find out… you should have told me the minute I got here. That I would have understood. But this… I could have helped you. There's got to be something I could have done for you, to bring you back. But… Loki, I wouldn't have had to be alone through… through everything." She couldn't control it any more, hot tears of rage spilling over as she continued, "You don't know how it feels, to have no control over… the child that you had carried for months, the child you were expecting to change everything… you don't know how it feels to suddenly lose everything, Loki. And to be so utterly alone, when the one person you want by your side, the one person who could have helped even a bit, is stuck in another dimension. I know that you know what it's like to be alone, but I can guarantee that you've never felt pain like that."

Turning on her heel, Laurel walked out of the room, headed for the living room of Loki's quarters. He didn't follow, knowing that if he did, she would have only yelled at him more. He felt terribly guilty, but there was nothing he could do. He should have told her, he knew, but it was so much easier to say that Thanos had killed him, so much more convenient than explaining how he had found a way to Valhalla, but that it had eaten away at his soul so much that he couldn't leave now. Not without a healing ritual performed by none other than the Goddess of Death. That was the one problem with being the God of Mischief - lying had long since become second nature, the easy way out of things. He knew it was wrong, but it kept him out of trouble, at least until everything blew up in his face and he realized how much he had to fix now.

For her part, Laurel had gotten used to him lying to other people, coming up with easy responses that made sense to them in order to get out of explaining a lot more. But this was definitely the biggest thing he had ever lied to her about. It made sense, that he had done it to protect her, but after a certain point, he should have said _something._ Just knowing that he was alive, albeit in Valhalla, would have helped. Not recently, of course. Nothing would have made the agony of sitting in that hospital without him any better, but she deserved to know. Frigga and Odin certainly knew. Maybe they had assumed he had told her at one point, but still…

Sitting in his room, Loki had lost all sense of being hungry. He vanished their breakfast, laying back in bed to think. There was not much he could do, or so it seemed. If he went out to talk to her, she would chide him for not giving her space. If he didn't, she would be mad that he didn't at least try to apologize and make things better. Slowly, he sat up, running a hand through his hair and steeling himself for a confrontation before making his way out to where Laurel was standing at a window, looking over all of Valhalla. "I'm sorry," he told her, moving to stand by his wife's side. Normally he would have reached out for her, but he knew better. "I really do owe you quite the mea culpa. I've done a lot wrong in my life, but... this one is especially bad. I'm sorry, love."

"And I'm pissed," she replied, not looking over to him at all. "I think I'm going to go back to Midgard for a little while."

"Alright. I… I understand." He stood back, trying to give her some pace, but longing to try to fix things as quickly as he could.

"I still love you. I just need to process all of this." She turned to face him, adding, "I'll be back… I don't know when I'll be back, but I'm going." Pecking him on the cheek, she left him at the window and headed for the kitchen, dropping off her coffee mug before going to get dressed.

It was only a little while before she was back in Midgard, Loki sadly watching her disappear in the middle of the living room, her usual spot for portals. As the last of the sparks died out and the portal closed, he sighed, knowing that all he could do now was wait.

Appearing back in the Avengers Facility, Laurel found herself alone. Thankfully. Everyone else was either out in the gym or holed up in their labs, at least according to their trackers. Tony only had them activated when they were out on missions, but they were easy enough to hack with a bit of magic.

Laurel wandered the halls, not wanting to go into her room, the one she had long since shared with Loki. His room had been turned into a guest room, one that she was pretty sure Rocket had taken over. She found herself in front of the massive oak doors of the library, but she didn't want to walk in there either. That was where she had first met Loki, where they had slowly warmed up to each other and become close. Shaking her head, she gravitated towards the kitchen, making a cup of tea before continuing to stroll through the halls of the facility.

Tony and Bruce were in their labs, working on something that she could only guess about. Rocket stood on a stepstool, fiddling with something that Tony had disassembled - part of his suit? Part of Rhodey's? Part of the newest Hulkbuster armor? From the window, she could only wonder. Pepper was in there with them, reading off some sort of report from her tablet, something to do with Stark Industries, no doubt.

As she made her way towards the gardens, Laurel was stopped by a voice behind her. "Hey, I thought you were steering clear of us for a bit," Steve said, jogging to catch up with her. "I figured you'd be in Valhalla for a while. Or at least longer than a day or two."

"No, I... it's a lot to explain. A lot that I don't quite know how to explain or understand yet, but... I'm here for a while, I think. It's better for me to be here right now." Laurel turned and gave him a hug, sadly saying, "Not in Valhalla. Not now, at least."

* * *

A.N.: Thank you all for the messages, the comments, and the support. I've got lots going on now, but you all are amazing about it!


	52. I'm Sorry

Sitting in the garden, Laurel absentmindedly flipped a page in her book, creating a small rain cloud out of nowhere to water some of the withering flowers that hadn't been watered in a while. Steve came over to sit beside her, saying nothing as he opened his laptop and took out a list, continuing on his reading. He was still trying to catch up on years worth of popular culture, politics, and technology, and read about things on his list at every chance he could get. "What do you know about Facebook?" he asked, looking over at her. "Tony helped me sign up for it a while ago, but I've got no idea what I'm doing."

"Here, let's see," Laurel laughed, scooching closer and pulling the laptop onto her lap. "First of all, let me show you how to log in. You remember how to use your email, right?"

Loki, meanwhile, sat in Valhalla, watching from the window he had created into Midgard. He could do nothing, interact with no one there, but he could watch. Usually he would use that kind of magic to watch Laurel as she trained her students, or watch as she was on a mission. Even though he couldn't do anything to help her, it gave him at least a little bit of comfort to know how she was doing. This time, however, he frowned, watching the two friends talking and laughing outside of the Avengers Facility.

Rogers had been the one she had always run to, the one who went with her to the hospital and helped her through some of the worst times in her life. He was the one who helped her process Loki's own death, and the one who had encouraged her to find a way to Valhalla. He had even helped her hunt through the library for books that could help. They spent ages holed up there together, reading and taking notes, even though Steve didn't have much of an idea what he was looking for. The two of them had always been close, but it bothered Loki now. It bothered him that he wasn't the one with Laurel, the one helping her through everything. Of course, he wouldn't be much help right now, but he still longed to be there with her.

As Loki peered into Midgard, Frigga came by, wondering what he was up to that kept him in the same spot for so long. Noticing the expression on his face, she sat down, asking if he and Laurel had finally had "the conversation" about how he had ended up there. Loki simply nodded, continuing to stare as Laurel and Steve talked, trying to read their lips. Laurel was laughing now, Steve laughing along with her. Whatever the joke had been, he had missed it, Loki frowning even further.

That night, Laurel sat up with the others, playing cards. She wasn't losing terribly, but she wasn't doing spectacularly well either. It was Thor who brought it up, asking why she was still with them and not home in Valhalla. Steve glanced over to her, Laurel shaking her head a bit. "I need to be in Midgard for a bit," she explained. "Valhalla isn't great for one's health, not when they're healing."

"My brother didn't try to keep you there?"

"Your brother," Laurel took a breath, trying to calm herself down a bit as she took her turn, "Your brother is a bit of an idiot. A lot of an idiot. He has a lot to learn."

Thor wisely didn't press the question any further. They finished their game, everyone collecting their drinks and going their separate ways for the night. As Laurel made her way back towards her quarters, Thor caught up with her, asking what was wrong. "My brother may be an idiot, but he loves you. He would not let you leave unless there was a good reason."

"Do you know why he's in Valhalla? Do you really know? He's there because he's hiding out from Thanos," Laurel told him, stopping in front of his door. "He popped into Valhalla to avoid him, supposedly to protect us, and then just stayed there until he couldn't leave any more. Valhalla eats away at the living and claims them for itself, and now he's stuck. He did this to himself. He let us mourn… we gave him an Asgardian funeral. We cried so much, I cried so much -"

Thor reached out and pulled her into a hug, trying to offer some sort of comfort. He, better than any of the rest of them, knew how awful Loki could be at times, even if he honestly didn't mean to hurt them. "It may not have been the kindest thing to do, but if it really was to protect us, I for one am thankful."

"If we knew… what if we weren't as distracted? If we knew… what if we could have rallied ourselves and defeated Thanos? If we weren't distracted?" Laurel wondered aloud.

"No. He had the Infinity Stones by then, and no matter what we did, no matter how focused we were or could have been, there was no way we could have defeated him. Loki or not."

"He's an asshole," Laurel replied, taking a step back from her brother-in-law. "He could have at least let us know that he was alright, that we didn't have to mourn for him while we were fighting Thanos, even if it didn't help us stop him. We could have at least known. We went years without a word, without knowing anything. We spent ages trying to get to Valhalla, and he was just… sitting around and reading? Watching our effort here? Watching us try to come to terms with losing him and trying to find him again?"

"You are right," he acknowledged, "but Loki has learned to rely on himself for hundreds of years now. He has learned not to trust people, not to rely on them, and he expects the same. Even from you. He loves you, but he keeps a couple of steps back from everyone. He does this. Trying to protect himself. Had this… had all of the unfortunate events of the last week not happened, he would likely have never told you any of this. Who knows? But he does care about you, which is why he let you go and why he gave you your space."

Laurel pursed her lips, considering it a bit. True enough, Loki did build walls and shut people out, he did try to guard himself, but she still deserved to know the truth. Even if, in the moment, he couldn't have been there in the hospital with her, she felt that she, "Should have known that I could bring him back here if I wanted to. I still have to bring him back here… eventually I'm going to have to bring him back, before Valhalla destroys him completely."

"Take some time and get some rest," Thor advised, giving her another hug before unlocking his door. "There is nothing you have to do but check in on the Sanctum tomorrow. Let me know if you need anything, alright?"

"I will. Thank you." Laurel watched as he went into his room, waiting until the door clicked shut before heading to the library roof. She conjured a small illusion of the northern lights, the lights that Loki had taught her to splash across the sky dancing in green and gold. She sighed, the lights turning blue and silver to match her colors instead. She raked a hand through her hair, agonizing over what she would do about Loki. He had not only fooled her for years but made her suffer, given her a quest to find him, made her go through a hell of a lot just to find him, and not given her any sort of sign that he was still around.

Letting her legs dangle over the side of the building, Laurel lay back on the rooftop, staring up at the lights she had created and the stars in the sky above her. Anyone looking over from the city would have been able to just barely notice the glimmering lights in the sky. Normally they would be written off as something going on in the Avengers Facility - the place everyone knew was there but refused to approach, because they knew it wouldn't end well. It was treated like a classified government facility, something that Tony tried to keep enforced in order to protect the secrecy of their work and of their inventions. They didn't want people wandering into the woods while they were testing weapons, or coming too close and intercepting top secret transmissions. But on the rare occasion that someone looked over and saw the lights and didn't remember that there were a group of superheroes living there, the Internet would start freaking out about UFOs and aliens in the woods near a major city. That always made Laurel smile, thinking of how much the general public didn't know. Sometimes they would join in, posting things on anonymous message boards and egging people on. Loki loved it.

"You're an idiot, you know," Laurel said aloud, looking up at the sky. "I love you, Loki, but you're an idiot." She wished she could talk to him about it, but she also knew that it would still make her mad. And then she would cry. That was the horrible thing about angry crying - it made her look weak, and she couldn't control it. She'd managed to reign it in a lot, but not with Loki. Up against Thanos or some other enemy, she could turn herself deadly cold, but she just couldn't do that with Loki. Instead she would try to explain things, trying not to get mad, but almost inevitably boiling over and turning into an angry, teary mess.

Loki too was outside, looking at the sky. He stood on his balcony in Valhalla, staring at the same stars that Laurel was staring at. He had opened a window into the Midgardian world, watching as Laurel lay down on the rooftop. More than anything, he wished he could talk to her, apologize again, and beg for forgiveness if she wanted him to. He would keep begging for forgiveness until she relented. No, that wouldn't work, she would just get annoyed. "What am I supposed to tell you?" he wondered, glancing at the magical window into another dimension. "How am I supposed to fix any of this?" With a sigh, he leaned his head in his hands, balancing his elbows carefully on the balcony's railing. "I love you. I'm sorry. What more can I say?"


	53. A Place to Belong

"Well, what am I supposed to do about her?" Loki asked, looking over to his companion. He got no response as he continued pacing up and down the living room floor, a window into Midgard floating at one end. "I can't go to Midgard, so I just have to wait down here for her… I wish I could do something! I have to do something!"

Spinning on his heel, he turned around, continuing to pace. "Do you know how we met? In the libraries of that damn prison they kept me in. She showed up one day and took over. There was another chair, one next to mine, that she just showed up and stole. It was a nice chair, a nice empty spot, and then she took over. I got used to her being there and… I never realized how much she mattered until I almost lost her. She was dying, and that was when I realized how much I loved her. How much I do still love her. How much I'll love her no matter how much she hates me. Doesn't it sound awful when I say it that way?"

"Meow," Muffin answered, flicking his tail and stretching out on the sofa.

Loki simply nodded, dropping down next to the cat, which curled up next to him. The cat had taken to him almost immediately, Laurel always telling him that it was proof of how good he truly was, no matter how evil he seemed to the others. "Everything with her was just… different. I don't know how to describe it, but she's… What have I done?"

 _Loki sat on the floor of the hallway, Laurel slumped onto his shoulder. He was covered in blood, but he didn't care. She would bleed out if they didn't do something quickly. "Laurel, please, keep your eyes open. Look at me. Love, look at me."_

 _With a deep, pained sigh, she looked up at him, trying to hold his gaze. He could tell that she was in terrible pain, gritting her teeth as she tried to keep her eyes open. Gently raising a hand to her forehead, he cast as much of a spell as he dared to, trying to relieve even a bit of the pain. He had to keep her in pain, he knew, so he could be sure that she was alive and that the healing magic he would soon perform was working. "How the hell did she hold herself together for this long?" Pepper was asking, crouching down next to the two of them. Loki paid no attention to Steve's answer, instead not breaking eye contact with Laurel until she was wrenched from his arms._

 _Pepper and Nat were the ones to take her first, cleaning her up a bit while Loki was charged with clearing off a table and gathering things to begin surgery. His stomach dropped as she was carried away, Loki hoping and praying that she would be brought back to him alive. Luckily, Nat and Pepper carried her back carefully, Laurel unconscious but still breathing._

 _Now it was up to Loki, carefully removing the layers of magic that Laurel had performed while reconstructing layers of tissue and organs on his own. He tuned everyone else out as he focused on her, on his work, on praying that he wouldn't mess up and that she would stay alive. "I can't lose you," he whispered, slowly pulling back another layer of magic. "Please, Laurel, I can't lose you. I love you."_

"I can't begin to imagine what it was like for her, alone up there in Midgard, but that was the closest I could ever come to experiencing that loss myself," Loki told the cat, Muffin starting to purr as Loki scratched his ears. "Her life was in my hands, more then than ever. My mother had taught me a bit about healing magic, but nothing close to what I had to perform to save her. I truly thought she was going to die then… I don't know what I would have done if I had killed her. That was when I realized how much I cared about her, how much her loss would have destroyed me."

"Meow," Muffin offered.

"I know, I know. I have to wait. But everything is different with her. Everything is… quieter, more peaceful, even though she goes into battle so much. She quiets everything down, all of the horrible memories of the Asgardian dungeons, all of the dreams… It's so much harder sleeping without her next to me, you know? Why am I talking to a cat?" he sighed, getting up and starting to pace again.

 _Light streamed into the room, Loki not wanting to move. He was extremely comfortable, waking up in one of the well-rested moods that had grown so rare. He hadn't dreamt of Asgard for the first time in a while. Actually, he hadn't dreamt of anything, which was just fine by him. Laurel's head was on his chest, a cascade of red hair shielding her eyes from the sunlight as she slept. Loki smiled a bit, running his hand through her hair as he thought back to the night before. How he had finally given in, showing her what he looked like stripped of all magic, the Jotun form that he detested so much. How she hadn't recoiled, but instead reached out for him, telling him that he didn't scare her. And he believed it. The frantic kisses they had shared, the decadent slowness of their movements together, the ultimate release of all of the pent-up emotion that had been simmering between the two of them for ages now._

 _She was beautiful, even in sleep. Even when he knew she would still be tired from the night before, from the missions she had been on and the healing process that she had just had to go through. Dragging his fingertips down her shoulder, he smiled to himself, noticing the string of dark, round bruises trailing down her neck. He would normally have healed them for her immediately, but decided against it. He had marked his territory, a clear show of possession for the others to marvel at when they got up for breakfast._

" _Loki," she yawned, stretching and balancing herself on her elbows to look at him. "Good morning." She leaned forward and gave him a kiss, "That was… a very good night, to say the least."_

" _Would you like a very good morning?" he asked, the corner of his mouth turning up slightly. In answer, Laurel leaned in and kissed him again, Loki flipping her onto her back. "I'll take that as a resounding yes."_

Coming to a stop at the window into Midgard, Loki crossed his arms, watching as Laurel and Steve sat up in the living room, talking late into the night. She had a drink perched in her hand, one of the mixed drinks that she would occasionally indulge in. She was laughing at something he had said, laughing more than Loki had seen her laugh in a while, even before they had lost their child. Clearly, she was happy, at least in the moment. And she wasn't happy in Valhalla. She couldn't have been happy in Valhalla. It would have felt like being trapped, just like he felt. At least she was able to leave and come back when she wanted. "We're stuck down here," Loki announced to the cat, which hadn't moved from the sofa. "I wish we could leave. As soon as she comes home, I want to get out of here. We can go back to the Avengers Facility, or we can go to the Sanctum, but I don't want to be here if I do not have to be."

On one hand, Valhalla was safe. But on the other, it felt like he was trapped there, trapped in another world of the Asgardians, one he didn't fit into either. At least in Midgard he could lie low at the Sanctum, disguise himself as a normal Midgardian and not draw too much attention. All he could do here was read, adventuring around the palace and around Valhalla trying to keep himself occupied while the person he truly cared about wasn't there to explore with him.

It was a place to stay, but it wasn't home. Nothing was home. Jotunheim had never been a home, never a place that he was wanted. Asgard wasn't home either. He was just kept there to serve a purpose, to be held onto until he was needed to negotiate peace with Jotunheim. In the Avengers Facility, he had been a prisoner, not able to leave or do much of what he wanted. Nothing ever felt right, nothing ever felt like home. But then there was Laurel.

Being with her didn't feel like "home", at least not like it was described in romance novels. It didn't change the world. No, being with her just felt like he was finally wanted, like he could just _be_ , no matter what. He wasn't expected to be a prince, or a piece in a negotiation, or regarded as a dangerous prisoner. He was just Loki, the Loki that fit perfectly in her arms, the Loki that could make her smile and the Loki that she hated to leave when she was headed for a mission. Being with her didn't feel like home. It just felt like where he was supposed to be, a small space in a massive universe that he was finally sure that he belonged in.

 _It had been one of the worst nightmares he'd had in a while. Laurel had woken up to find him thrashing in a pile of blankets, trying to summon some sort of spell to defend against an enemy that she couldn't see. It was on occasions like this that she would cast a protective bubble around him, just in case he managed to cast a dangerous spell that would have hurt her, hurt himself, or set something on fire in the room. She would gently reach out and wake him up, dissolving the bubble as soon as he woke up so he wouldn't notice it and feel even worse about it. She could tell that he hated waking up like that, hated being tortured by his own mind, hated having to admit that it was another nightmare._

" _Loki. Loki, wake up. Come on, wake up." She shook his shoulder, Loki jolting awake as if he was ready to fight. He relaxed when he saw that it was her, Laurel pushing the hair out of his eyes and kissing him gently. "It's alright. It's alright, come here." Winding her arms around him, she could feel that he was shaking, trying to control it, but failing spectacularly. "It's alright. I know you hate those dreams. I know you hate waking up like this. Hell, I know you hate going to sleep for fear of dreams like that."_

" _I'm sorry," he croaked, holding her tightly as he tried to regain his grip on what was real and what wasn't. "I'm sorry I do this to you every few nights. I'm sorry if it scares you."_

 _Laurel kissed him again, saying, "It's alright. I know you can't control it. Here." She raised her hand, tossing a ball of light into the air before spreading it into an aurora that lit up a corder of their room. The soft, glowing lights danced across the ceiling, forming a pattern that he had taught her long before. "Aren't they pretty? When you're not here and I can't sleep, I'll cast the same spell. They remind me of candles, but they can't burn the place down if I fall asleep."_

" _I love you."_

" _I love you too."_

" _You're probably the only person here who isn't afraid of me," he blurted out, saying things in the dark that he never would have said in the light. "You're the only person in a long time who hasn't judged me as evil before we even met. You're not scared of me, of me being a Jotun, of -"_

" _Loki, I love you," she reminded him, looking to see that he was staring at the aurora dancing above them. "I love you, and that means getting to know and getting used to everything about you. I don't mind if you're blue, because you're still you. I don't mind if you feel like shifting into different forms because it's still you, even if you look different. It's just like dying your hair and putting on a different set of clothes. The outside might change, but it's still you. I'm not scared of your dreams, because they're not real. They might seem real in the moment, but they can't hurt you, and I know you won't hurt me trying to stop them. I won't let you do that. I'm not scared of you because you're still you. You're the Loki that I first came to love, no matter what you look like, or how many horrible dreams are plaguing you. There's always light in the morning, and all of those dreams come to an end."_

 _For a moment, he was quiet, but ultimately, he pulled her close, whispering, "Thank you. Thank you for not running away. You… you make everything better," he confessed. "Like coming home, except I've never had a real home. More like having a place to belong."_


	54. The World of the Living

There was nothing Loki could do but wait. Most of his time was spent in the vast Valhallan library, trying to find something to focus on. When he wasn't rifling through four books at the same time, he was walking through the gardens, lost in thought, or strolling through the streets of the sprawling landscape below the palace. Passersby had stopped acknowledging him, realizing that he would snarl at anyone who dared to even say hello. They let him walk unbothered, wondering what exactly was on their prince's mind, and what personal tragedy he had to be going through.

Frigga and Odin had noticed, obviously. Odin had wisely decided to keep himself out of it, instead sending his wife to get as much information from Loki as she could. For her part, Frigga had tried to be compassionate, to listen, to get her son to open up. Loki hadn't told her much, but she gathered that there was a lot going on between him and Laurel, a lot unfolding that she hadn't been told before. She had found him staring into Midgard, longing to talk to Laurel there, but not being able to. As soon as he noticed her lurking, he would vanish the window, pretending like nothing had happened. But she knew better.

Loki had lost count of the days, the weeks that Laurel had been gone, but he never lost count of how many times he had looked in on her to see that she was with the rest of the Avengers, the rest of her family. She would be on missions with them, coming home to laugh off the stress of their work, the camaraderie between all of them so clearly evident. Or she would be in the Sanctum, teaching groups of students all of the magic she had learned, melding the Mystic Arts with Celtic and Norse traditions - nothing Asgardian, because of how dangerous it could be to the sorcerer themselves, but everything else she knew, she taught them. She would be sitting in Tony and Bruce's labs, briefing them on the latest intelligence threats, or training with Thor, Rhodes, and Nat in the nights with Steve, board game nights with the entire team, lunch with Wong planning new training regimes for their students and checking in with other Sanctums. It was her life, all of it without him.

The sun was going down, Loki walking through the gardens again when he heard footsteps running up behind him. Expecting it to be a servant coming to tell him that it was time to get ready for supper, he turned with a sigh, immediately taken aback at the woman he found staring at him. "I'm taking you home," she resolved, crossing her arms. "I don't care what you did. I don't care how you did it. I'm still mad at you, but I love you, and I'm going to bring you back. We're figuring out how to fight Thanos, and we need all the help we can get. The universe needs you. I need you."

"I'm sor-"

"Shut up," she shook her head, taking his hand and leading him back towards the palace. "I've already told your parents what's going on, what I've decided. Go say goodbye to them for now, and then find me. I've got to get everything ready for the ritual. You can always come back and visit with me, but you should probably tell them goodbye for a while."

All he could do was obey, heading off to find Odin and Frigga while Laurel departed for their quarters. When he returned, he found her standing in a glowing circle. Her eyes were closed as she muttered an incantation, the entire room seeming to glow a faint red. "How do you know what you're doing?" he asked, coming to a stop right outside of the circle.

"I just do. It's part of being the Goddess of Death. Grab our cat and then come in here," Laurel instructed. Loki located the cat, stepping over the line and into the glowing circle of light. Her eyes still closed, Laurel took Muffin, snapping her fingers and sending him back to the Avengers Facility. Good. At least it looked like an easy process. "He was nearly dead when I found him. I felt bad, so I brought him here, where he would be alright. He had been hit by a car," she added, "so I could bring him down here pretty easily, just like I can send him back and bring him back to life. You're going to be a bit more difficult, because you were alive when you got here. You're an anomaly, half dead and half alive. You can't really be in either realm unless you're one or the other."

"What does that mean?" Loki asked apprehensively, Laurel continuing to mouth a spell under her breath.

"It means that part of you has to die to come back to life. I know, it doesn't make much sense, but it has to happen. You're not going to like this." She opened her eyes, continuing, "It's going to hurt no matter what I do, but I'll try to make it as painless as possible."

Loki nodded, accepting it as part of his punishment for fooling her for so long. "That's fine. I'm just glad you're bringing me back."

"I need you to kneel."

"What?"

"Kneel," Laurel smirked as the god obeyed automatically. "You heard me." She put her hand to his forehead, taking a deep breath and admitting, "I hope this works."

"You don't know?"

"When have I ever done this before?" Laurel asked him, Loki shrugging. She bent down to kiss him, promising, "I'll do everything I can, okay? If something starts to go wrong, I can stop it and keep you here. You won't die, per se. I'll try my best."

"I love you."

"I love you too." She closed her eyes, again beginning to mumble the words of a complicated spell. Within seconds, it felt like he was dying, his breath running short and every nerve lighting on fire. Gritting his teeth, he focused on the words she was saying, on trying to understand them to block out the pain. None of them made any sense to him, but they helped, at least a bit. It was her, she was doing this to help him.

"Laurel," he choked, straining to look up at her. "Laurel, please…" She paid no attention, continuing to work the spell that was putting him in agony. He could feel tears streaming down his cheeks, involuntarily spilling over as another wave of pain hit him. "Laurel…"

Dropping to her knees, she grabbed both of his hands, her eyes flying open as she met his gaze. "You're about to die. Listen very carefully." Her words came quickly, flowing out as the light around them grew brighter. "It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt like only a few things you've ever felt before. You've got to let the spell take you where it's going to take you. Don't fight it. There's a border between the two worlds, one that you've got to go through before you can get back to the world of the living. It's got to control you. If you try to control it, you're going to mess up. I'm the only one who can control it. You've got to trust me. I'll be there with you, I promise. Loki, I love you." Before he could respond, she squeezed his hands, everything mercifully going black.

The first thing he noticed was that he wasn't in pain any more. It felt more like floating than anything else. Blinking a few times, Loki registered where he was. It was dark, a dimly lit room that felt like it expanded forever. There were trees far in the distance. At least, they looked like trees. There was a light over by the forest, Loki being drawn to it without ever having to make the conscious decision to step forward. As he came closer, he could see that it was a human figure, one that looked like it was glowing.

"Hi." Loki had come to a stop in front of the figure, Laurel smiling from a form he had never seen before. "This is what lies between Valhalla and the rest of the realms. There's nothing here, but there's everything here."

"What is all of this?" he wondered, looking at the trees. "What lies beyond this?"

"Life. And death." She extended her hand, Loki reaching out for her. "Come with me. It's easy to get lost here, and if you get lost, you get trapped." Leading him into the forest, she continued to explain. "This is the small space between life and death, what Asgardian warriors see before they enter Valhalla, or before they're brought back from the brink of death. There's no pain here. No time either. Nothing is real, and everything is real. I've spent some time exploring it, and there's a lot here, but it's incredibly easy to get lost. Just trust me."

They walked for a while, through what seemed like an endless forest of trees, until they reached a clearing surrounded by massive white stones. Laurel brought him to the middle of the circle, letting go of his hand and stepping back. "Don't be afraid. I have to let you go for a minute, but when you wake up, I'll be there. I promise."

"Why do you sound like you're about to cry?"

Laurel took another step back, not meeting his eye. "Because this is the part where I could really mess up. If I do, I'm sorry."

"What happens if -" He was cut off as she held her hands up, sending a pulse of energy into the circle and hitting him squarely in his chest. He felt a blinding flash of pain, and then nothing.

This time, everything ached when he opened his eyes. At first, he didn't recognize where he was, but there was an aurora glowing in the corner of the room, so Laurel had to have been there. He closed his eyes again, relieved to know that he had made it. Where, he didn't know. But he had made it out of the barrier between the two worlds, and that was something. "Laurel?" he croaked, feeling someone sit down on the bed beside him. She took his hand, Loki smiling a bit.

"Brother, you're awake!" came Thor's voice from across the room, Loki wincing a bit at how loud he was. "Thank the gods! We had worried so much!'

Laurel shushed him, running her thumb over Loki's hand. "He's just come back from the dead, Thor. Give him some time."

"It feels like I've been run through a washing machine," Loki sighed, carefully opening his eyes to see Laurel smiling down at him. "How long have I been out?"

She leaned forward to give him a kiss before answering. "Three days. Welcome back to the world of the living."


	55. No One Can Compete With You

A.N.: So I had this dream that I ended up having dinner in this fancy restaurant with Tony Stark, and he ends up going, "You passed the test, kid. Let's go meet the team." It was one of the best dreams I've had in a while. And then I woke up to find out that I had a message from a friend who cosplays Tony Stark really well? The world is weird, friends.

* * *

It took Loki a few days to recover, but they soon made their way to the Sanctum, where Laurel had moved back into her loft and begun teaching again. "You know you're going to have to lie low for a while, right?" she asked, folding laundry as Loki lounged in an armchair, a book balanced carefully in his hand.

"I know." He flipped a page in his book, his eyebrows furrowing a bit as he reread something on the Soul Stone. The Soul Stone had to be the key to bringing everyone back, he thought. No one quite understood the stone and its mysterious properties, but it was the best lead they had, and he had been chasing it for a while now.

"That means you can't go creating chaos all over the city, and you've got to dress like a normal Midgardian when you go out."

"Consider it done."

"You do look nice in Midgardian clothes, though," Laurel offered, coming over by where he sat to grab a couple of hangers from their closet. "You should consider expanding your wardrobe."

"Hmm." Loki nodded, turning a page in his book. "I think I'll take over organizing your library here. Someone has to do it, since your fellow teacher here hardly has time. Besides, it could use an update."

"Loki, Prince of Asgard, God of Mischief, rightful King of Jotunheim, the Odinson, Magical Librarian?" she laughed. "Good for you. You need a pet project like that. And when you've got time, I'm sure our students would benefit from some of your wisdom."

"Well, then, mayhaps I will. Have you ever read this?" He held the book up, Laurel raising an eyebrow. "It was locked up in the library, but the magic was fairly easy to get through. It's fascinating. You should give it a read."

"Let me know when you're done with it," she replied absentmindedly, disappearing into their closet to hang things up. "I'll look into it. Maybe it'll be helpful with Thanos."

They spent a lot of their days like that, Loki taking over the library and Laurel teaching and taking her students out on test missions. They would meet up with the other Avengers for dinner or for meetings at the facility, slowly but surely putting together a plan to defeat Thanos. Or to at least track him down on Titan, confront him, and live to tell the tale. They had to be sure that their plan would work, because it was very likely that they would only have one shot at it. While everyone else trained, worked on their armor, or recruited more help, Loki was busy reading through anything and everything he could get his hands on about the Infinity Stones and how to counter them.

He was in the Sanctum's library when Laurel came by, dropping off a cup of tea and reminding him that, "We've got to be dressed and ready by eight, remember."

"What's tonight, again?" Their calendars were always full of social events, whether they be strategy meetings, research nights with the others, or events that Tony had planned for his business. "And what am I supposed to wear?"

"It's Midgardian formal, but you can just wear your Asgardian robes if you want to. I don't think it'll matter. Just make sure you look nice and presentable," she answered, leaning on the bookshelf closest to him. "It's the anniversary gala for the Peter Parker Memorial Scholarship Trust. It's going to be a… fairly tense night, I would say. Tony's going to be more keyed-up than usual, and Peter's aunt is the guest of honor, like always."

Setting his book down, Loki sighed, asking, "Do I actually have to go?"

"We need to be there to support them. He was a part of my team, Loki. He was just a kid," she sighed, thinking of how Peter would follow her around the facility asking questions, telling her about high school, searching for advice. "Just come with me, okay? You've been cooped up in here for a while." Like always, he assented, promising that he would be ready by eight. It wouldn't be a fun night, even for the rest of them, but he did have to be there. Laurel had mandated it, and he still had a long way to go making things up to her.

As Laurel was getting ready, standing in front of their bathroom mirror, Loki seemed to materialize behind her. "You look wonderful, darling."

"Thank you. So do you." She turned to face him, putting in one of her earrings as she asked why he was so early.

"I want to talk to you. I found something on the Soul Stone that may be of importance. If Thanos used it in the way I think he did, everyone who was dissolved would have vanished into the Soul World, which is inside the stone itself. That's why the vanished Asgardians didn't end up in Valhalla. That, in turn, brings up two things - first, there is only one person I know of who can travel between the worlds of the living and the dead, and I think she might be able to travel to the Soul World as well. I don't know what it could mean, but if she could…"

"If I can do it, we might be able to bring everyone back, just like I can bring people from Valhalla back here," Laurel finished, straightening his tie. "And the other?"

"If we destroy the stone, would it not free everyone?"

Laurel thought for a moment, finally deciding that, "It might. It could. But we might also destroy all of them inside of the stone, and not have a way to bring them back. We've got to do more research, but it's a great start. Either way, being the Goddess of Death will help. But being the Goddess of Death won't help if we're late tonight. Let's go."

No matter what press events they were doing, no matter what gala they were at, the first few minutes were spent smiling for cameras, waving to the press, and greeting all of the important people. Both of them were glad to have each other to hold on to in those first moments, even if it was just to not be swept away by the deluge of media flooding the area. Laurel wouldn't let go of his arm until they were in the reception hall, finally relaxing enough to take his hand and lead him towards the first person she saw carrying a tray of champagne. They would take a breath, exchange a look, and fall into conversations with other people. Even if they drifted apart, they would occasionally look across the crowd to see each other and smile a bit, as if to say, "You're still here. I might be ready to murder these people, but you're still here too."

"Hey, you," Steve came up behind them, Laurel smiling and turning to give him a hug. "Nice to see you again. How's work at the Sanctum going?"

Thor pulled his brother away to talk about Asgardian administrative business, leaving the two of them to catch up. The next time Laurel saw Loki, she and Steve were spinning around the dance floor, stopping to talk to some of the scholarship donors and telling them amazing stories of battles and recently declassified missions. Everyone wanted to talk to the heroes, of course, especially someone as iconic as Captain America. Loki was used to this to, used to either being shoved aside by the press and the people at the galas or demonized and verbally abused. So he let her have her fun while he hung back, watching from the wall.

Steve Rogers. He was an interesting one. He'd been one of the ones to first go after him, to stop the Chitauri invasion. But he had also gone rogue, or as rogue as Captain America could go, when the Sokovia Accords attempted to tie down superheroes. He clearly hadn't forgiven Loki for everything he had done, but none of them had. He'd been one of the more accepting ones, though. He'd listened when Laurel explained how Loki had changed, and he'd always been there to help the two of them. He'd become close friends with Laurel, and he'd been the one to help almost every time she almost died. Now the two of them were grabbing more champagne, talking to donors, laughing at their horrible jokes in hopes of helping Tony and his scholarship fund.

It wasn't that Loki resented Steve Rogers, but he did remind him of Thor - the golden child, the one everyone looked up to, the one who could do no wrong, even when he was on the run from the law. He would have public support no matter what, and he would always have people flocking to him. He was just so damned _nice_ , so personable in a way that Loki knew he could never be. Loki made his way through the crowd, appearing at his wife's side. "Hi, you," she beamed, kissing him on the cheek and introducing him to a couple of people whose names he paid no attention to. "How are you doing?"

"If you don't mind, I think I'm going to head back to the Sanctum," he whispered, pulling her aside for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Laurel frowned, her eyes full of concern.

"Nothing. I'm just tired of people, and I'm starting to get a headache. Stay here and have fun, alright? I'll see you when you get home."

"I can leave them with Steve," she offered, glancing back over her shoulder. "He's got them handled. They'll be donating to the fund at the end of the night regardless of whether or not I stay."

Loki shook his head, firmly telling her to stay there. "I'll be fine. Go have fun."

"Alright," she frowned, giving him a kiss. "Text me when you get home, okay?" He watched as she disappeared back into the crowd, beaming at a man in a charcoal grey suit. "Agent Ross! I haven't seen you in ages! Did I ever tell you that you remind me so much of one of Stephen Strange's old friends?"

Instead of grabbing one of the cars that had lined up outside, Loki simply left the building, snapping his fingers and appearing on the Bleeker Street stoop. It was quite late when Laurel finally made it home. Loki was up in their room, looking out the window towards the glowing lights of the gala, when a car arrived. Steve got out, going to open the door for Laurel, who gave him a hug, kissed his cheek, and wished him a good night before unlocking the door and coming upstairs. As he heard her footsteps coming closer, Loki sat down again, picking up a book and tossing a ball of light into the air.

"You're still awake?" Laurel wondered as she walked in, dropping her high heels next to the door. "How's your head?"

"Better," he told her absentmindedly, watching as she unclasped her necklace, shedding her watch and her earrings as she made her way towards the bathroom. He could hear the water running, Laurel humming to herself.

"Loki? Can you come here and unzip me?"

He set his book aside, having read nothing more than the first sentence. "May I ask you something? You and Captain Rogers are quite close, aren't you?"

"We are." She pulled a couple of bobby pins out of her hair as Loki unzipped the back of her dress. "Don't worry, love," she smiled mischievously, turning to him and pulling him closer. "You might not be off the hook yet, but no one can compete with you."


	56. The Kidnapping

A.N.: Successfully got a fancy job at a fancy law firm! I'm working for a year and then heading off to law school! I'll try my best to keep updating as regularly as I can, since I've got some great ideas on the way... I'm going to start pulling some stuff from the comics, because there's way more there than we see in the MCU (and way more that would flip our favorite characters' lives upside-down again). That's all I'll say bc I don't want to give too much away!

* * *

"You two are really just friends?" Loki asked, rolling over in bed as he started to wake up. "Like actually just friends? Nothing else?"

"Loki, I don't even have my glasses on yet, and you're asking me stuff like this?" Laurel sat up, frowning at him as she pushed her hair out of her eyes. "After the night we just had, you still think Steve Rogers and I are anything more than friends? Also, what the hell happened to 'good morning, my lovely wife'?"

"You two just seem so close -"

"That's what happens when you spend hours working in some of the worst conditions possible with someone, when you stay up all night monitoring suspects and swapping stories… we're friends, Loki, brought together by the work we do that a lot of people have no understanding of at all. Nothing more than that."

"It's just that you're so close, and he's… he's a hero. He's the kind of man everyone would want to be with. He's the kind of person that people like."

Laurel got up, stretching before going to brush her teeth. "He might be the kind of man the rest of the world wants to be with, but you're the man I want to be with," she stressed through a mouth full of toothpaste. "I married you for a reason, and it's not just so I could be a princess, you know. I really do love you, and I want to be with you."

"Alright," he nodded, letting go of the conversation for the time being. A small voice inside of him wasn't yet satisfied, but he let the subject drop for now, not wanting to make her angry. "I love you too. What's on the agenda for today?"

"I've got to teach a class about defensive magic, and then -" She was interrupted by the beeping of her watch, Laurel grabbing it from the nightstand on her side of the bed. "Shit, change of plans. I've got to get going. There's something going on in Sokovia, and they need me."

"Who's going with?" Loki asked, sitting up in bed as she disappeared again, going to grab her uniform. He tried to sound disinterested, but was immediately suspicious again.

"It's a solo mission," she told him, making sure her armor was securely fastened. "Just me, myself, and I. It's fitting, isn't it, me going back to Sokovia, where all of this started? Well, where my story started, anyway." Laurel pulled her hair back, glancing in the mirror for a second before coming to kiss him goodbye. "I should be home by dinner. If you could take over my class, I'd be incredibly grateful."

"Not a problem," he smiled, pulling her in for another kiss. "Be careful, love."

"I always am."

He watched her go, laying back as the door closed. He should have been used to this, Laurel disappearing for hours at a time on a moment's notice, but he worried every time she left. He couldn't help it. But there was a class to teach, a class full of woefully incompetent students that dared to say hello to him in the halls and disturb him while he was doing research in the library. Rolling out of bed, Loki yawned, slowly starting to get himself together. The students could wait.

It was a long day, Loki spending a lot of it trying to dumb down his explanations enough to where all of Laurel's students could understand them. It was a wonder, really, that she learned so quickly. He had been spoiled, having her for a student. At the same time, he had been more forgiving with her, since there had been a lot more than Asgardian magic in the air. Laurel was the best student he had ever had, the others not coming anywhere close to her kind of natural skill.

By the time it got dark, Loki was checking his phone almost obsessively. There had been no word from Laurel or from the other Avengers, and normally, she would have said something if she was running this late. Chalking it up to bad reception, he decided not to worry that much, instead occupying himself by organizing the library. He'd been indexing everything and adding new books to the collection, and was busy working on the restricted books when he noticed how late it was. It was nearly eleven when he decided to call her, getting no answer. "Love, it's me. I just wanted to make sure you're alright. Call me back when you get a chance, alright?"

By midnight, he had grown restless, pacing up and down the stairs until he could take it no longer. Wong had gone to bed, the students either practicing spells in the classrooms or heading to bed themselves. But Loki was incredibly keyed-up, so he went upstairs, grabbing a jacket from his closet and setting out for the Avengers Facility. It felt like it took forever to get there, but then again, the Midgardian subway system was nowhere near as efficient as the transportation on Asgard.

Thor was up late reading a couple of dispatches from Asgard when his brother appeared in the doorway, asking if he had seen Laurel. He set his papers down, shaking his head. "No, she hasn't been around all day. I don't think she mentioned going to Asgard the last time I saw her either. She usually lets me know if she's going to visit. Why do you ask, brother?" Loki had already vanished.

The next person he ran into was Steve, who was headed off to bed. "Where is she?" he asked, not bothering to be polite. "You must have seen her if she was here."

"Laurel hasn't been in all day," Steve answered with a big yawn, Natasha coming up behind them. She agreed, telling him that the last time she had seen Laurel was a few days before, when she came to drop some papers off with Tony.

"She was called out on a mission this morning," Loki shook his head, knowing that if she left for a mission, it would have been routed through the Avengers Facility. "You must know something. At least more than I do."

"I don't think so. I can check, but…" Nat looked at her watch, frowning as she pulled up a holographic map. "Her tracker's been switched off. We could go get Tony to double check it, but it hasn't been turned on since… the third. That was the last mission we went on together."

Loki thanked them briefly, heading off to Tony's lab. The lights were off, only the gentle hum of machinery filling the hall. Next door was Bruce's lab, where the lights were still on. Bruce was hunched over a microscope, reaching for a pipette with one hand and dripping something into a Petri dish. Loki passed him by, knowing that Stark was the one who could track Laurel down. He'd covered the majority of the facility by the time he ran into Tony, who had just raided the refrigerator and was on the way back to power down a few things in his office before bed.

"Where's my wife?" he pressed.

"Hi there to you too, Reindeer Games. Want a grape?"

"No, thank you. Laurel left for a mission that no one else has heard about, and we can't track her," Loki told him, Tony nodding and leading him into the office, where he dropped into his chair and logged back into his computer. Loki stood behind him, reading over his shoulder.

"Let's see… I can turn her tracker on from here. She's… nowhere. Wherever she is, she's either had it manually disconnected or she's somewhere out of range."

"What's out of range? How far away is that?"

Tony shook his head, popping another grape into his mouth. "Somewhere crazy far away. Outside of our galaxy at least. I know what else I can check, hold on." As he pulled up the transmission records of all of their missions, Loki leaned in, trying to read as quickly as he could. "There are no records of anyone being called out from here or from our other locations - the Sanctums, Asgard, anywhere we've got our tech. If someone called her out, it wasn't one of our people."

"If it wasn't from here, where the hell did the message come from?" Loki fumed, stepping back to think. "Who sent her somewhere? Where is she?"

The door swung open, Nat running in with her phone in her hand. "Tony, Loki, you're going to want to see this." She set it on the desk as Steve came in, his phone displaying the same message. Thor followed seconds later, his phone in his hand. All of them had gotten the same video, playing on a loop, coming from a number that didn't exist.

Laurel looked like she had been thrown up against a wall, blood dripping from a cut on her forehead. She sat against something made of metal in a dimly-lit room, almost like a basement. Staring straight into the camera, she sounded like she was reading off of a script as she announced, "Don't worry about me. He's found me for a reason, like he found you. Don't come after me, and everything will be fine. He knows the truth. He knows how you tried to fool him, but he is merciful, and will not hurt me if you don't try to hurt him."

"Tell him," commanded a voice they all knew well. Laurel looked stoic, except for her eyes. Her eyes shone with fear, a terrible fear that Loki could tell she was trying to suppress.

"Loki, it's begun. He knows what you've done." Quickly, she added, "I love you. Please don't come after me."

The video ended abruptly, echoes of the last couple of seconds finishing up on all of their phones as Loki stared at Nat's, which had since gone black. "Thanos has her," Nat finally said, picking her phone up and pocketing it. "However he did it, he has her."

"How do we know that was real?" Thor asked, trying to see if he could get the video to play again. Tony was already running it through various computer programs, trying to get any information he could from the video or from the mysterious number that had sent it. "He could have faked that. Anyone could have faked that with the right computer."

"He's right," Tony nodded, absorbed in his work. "Initially, at least, it doesn't seem fake. Give me another minute while this runs through the program."

"It's not fake," Loki resolved, looking around the group. "I know it. I know her. Thanos has her."

"We'll get her back, brother." Thor clapped him on the shoulder, looking around the group. "We'll get her back, and everyone else along with her."


	57. Welcome to the Soul World

"Relax, you're not going to get hurt unless that pitiful excuse for a god tries anything," Thanos told a restrained Laurel. "You're just getting a bit of a vacation."

"What are you trying to do to him?" Laurel answered, trying to talk through the gag in her mouth. It came out as a muffled series of sounds, Thanos just smiling at her futile attempt to talk. "He's not going to try anything, I swear."

"I think I'm going to hold on to you, my dear. Actually…" He raised his hand, admiring the gauntlet of Infinity Stones that he had brutally gathered from a series of deaths, culminating in the disappearance of half of the universe. As he flexed his fingers, Laurel tried to protest, everything going black before she could make a sound.

Floating. It felt like she was floating, like she was in a dark pool with nothing above and nothing below. It was warm, but there was no sense of heat - no sun, no heated water, nothing. The vast expanse that Laurel was in felt endless, like she was floating through another dimension. Like the expanse between Valhalla and the rest of the mortal realms, but there were no trees, no forest at all. No water, no sky, no sun. Nothing. And yet everything at once. There was no sense of movement at all, but she had to be moving. There was no way she would just be held in a static spot forever. This couldn't be all that there was in the Soul World. Or, what Laurel assumed was the Soul World.

"Do you think she's going to wake up soon?" The voice was familiar, one she hadn't heard in a long time. Laurel tried opening her eyes, finding that it was incredibly difficult. "She can't really die here, can she?"

"I don't know, kid. She's the first person to make it here that didn't come with us." Another familiar voice, a deeper one. Someone she had met once or twice. "No one's come here after the snap, and I don't know who was here before it. We haven't met anyone who was here before."

"I wish I could wake her up. I'm sure so much has happened since… since Wakanda." This was Wanda, surely. Laurel knew her voice well. After all, they had worked together for years in Sokovia, spent hours on end locked in rooms together, Laurel trying to test the limits of her (now) friend's powers for the Hydra facility. "Perhaps it's best to let her sleep, though."

Laurel sat up gingerly, opening her eyes and looking around. Everything in the Soul World had a bit of an orange glow to it. She was surrounded by a crowd of her friends and heroes that she had never met, but heard tales of. They all sat on a plane that clearly existed, but wasn't anything very distinguishable from the rest of the Soul World. It just stretched out like an endless plane, groups of people dotting the landscape far away. "Miss Laurel! She's awake!" Peter hugged her first, Laurel smiling and greeting him warmly.

"This is the Soul World?" she asked, looking around at the rest of them. Wanda nodded, sitting down beside her. "Do you all just… exist here?"

"We sit here every day telling stories and keeping each other company. There's nothing to do here," Peter told her. "There's nothing actually here." He helped her up, Wanda standing with them and keeping her from falling over. "There's no ground either. Not really. You can tell there is one, but there also… isn't."

As Laurel regained her balance, she looked around the group. Peter and Wanda were helping to hold her up, Sam, King T'Challa, and Bucky talking quietly with Nick Fury and Maria Hill, two people she hadn't seen in ages, even before "the snap". There was a collection of people she hadn't met - a woman with antennae, a burly, blue man, and a man who looked fairly human. They were standing with Groot, who had grown a bit since she had last seen him. They went around introducing themselves, Laurel saying hello and greeting her old friends.

"Well, I wasn't expecting to see you here," came a voice, one she had gotten used to long before she met almost all of the others, except for Wanda. Turning around to see Stephen Strange standing behind her, Laurel gave him a friendly smile. "How did you end up in the Soul World? There wasn't another snap, was there?"

"No. I was sent on a mission to Sokovia. I thought it was to eliminate the last remnants of a holdout Hydra cell or something. But there was no one waiting for me there, no orders, nothing at all. I tried to contact the Avengers Facility, but my comms unit kept going down. That's when Thanos' Order showed up and brought me here. I don't know what he's thinking, but he might be trying to get threats out of the way," Laurel told him, giving him a friendly hug.

Peter pulled them over to the larger group, asking what life was like on Earth now. They all sat down together, forming a circle as Laurel started filling them in on what had happened in the years that they had missed. As she talked, the rest of them tried not to interrupt with their questions, but many of them couldn't restrain themselves.

"Your aunt is doing much better now that she's had time to process all of this. She was so mad at Tony… but she's doing everything she can to try to help bring you back." She addressed Peter first, since he had clearly been going mad in the Soul World, having been ripped out of his life at such a young age. "She's helped him set up the Peter Parker Memorial Scholarship Fund for students doing tech work, and she's Chairwoman of the Board now. She went to see your class graduate, and she still celebrates your birthday with all of us. Your friends still come to visit her too." She gave him an encouraging smile, adding, "They all miss you so much. Tony keeps a photo of the two of you in his lab, you know."

"Really?"

"Really," she nodded, giving him a hug. "The other Avengers miss having you around too. All of you." Laurel looked over the group, into the weary eyes of her friends and of people she had never met. "Sam, Wanda, they've got photos of you guys everywhere. And Bucky, Steve's hell-bent I'm getting his best friend back. I'm not much of a substitute."

Addressing Groot and his group, she had to add, "Rocket's working with the Avengers now too. He loves taking things apart in our labs, and he's been a huge help. No one ever expects a raccoon to show up with all of us. He misses you all, though."

Turning to T'Challa, she had to shake her head. "Shuri is doing amazingly well. As queen and as the first female Black Panther, she's helped Wakanda continue thriving. You should see the technology she has there now… it's grown by leaps and bounds. She and your mother dedicated their new school to you. You would be so proud."

"I am," T'Challa beamed, thinking of his little sister running a nation, becoming their symbol of hope. "I am."

"What about the Sanctum?" Strange asked, raising an eyebrow. "Surely with all of your new magic training, you've kept it up."

"Wong and I have," she confirmed, explaining how they had expanded and brought in new recruits who were, "showing so much promise. I really wish you could see them. We're teaching the Mystic Arts, of course, but we've branched out to other kinds of magic too. Loki's been a great help there. He's supposed to be teaching a class for me while I'm gone, but… there's no real sense of time here, is there?"

"No," Strange sighed, shaking his head. Having had so much control over time, and now having none, he still felt lost. "There is no sun to rise or set, no clock to judge from… my watch battery died a while ago. We have nothing. We sleep when we want to sleep, but we don't have to eat or anything else. We just exist, out of time, out of the fabric of reality that I know."

"I found Valhalla," Laurel told them, eyebrows being raised around the circle. "I found Valhalla, and I found Loki. He's alive, by the way. He fooled Thanos, but he fooled all of us too. I think that's why I'm here. I brought him back a few days ago, at least in Earth time. I finally figured out how to bring him back, and we've been working on how to defeat Thanos once and for all, but he must have found out somehow. He must have known."

Strange crossed his arms, saying, "He was never very careful about concealing his movements. I'm sure his return to Earth alerted Thanos fairly quickly."

"He's actually been doing well concealing his movements, and he's started teaching at the Sanctum," Laurel replied quickly, twisting the ring on her finger. "He's changed, Stephen, even if you haven't."

Mantis, the woman with antennae, was sitting beside her. "You are offended, because you are still angry with him." She looked to Strange, who was busy rolling his eyes. "And you do not like her boyfriend. No, her husband now. He is her husband, and she loves him, even though she is angry with him. But you, Mr. Doctor, do not like him at all. You do not trust him, and you resent that he -"

"That is quite enough, Mantis," Strange sneered, the woman falling silent but still staring at Laurel, as if to continue their conversation with eyes.

"I'm sensing some history," Bucky whispered to Peter, who was sitting behind him. Peter laughed, nodding along. "We spend our time here talking and telling stories. We've gotten to know a hell of a lot about each other," he told Laurel, "so it's your turn."

"Yeah," Peter smiled, "what's the backstory there?"


	58. Just Like Old Times

"Yeah, how do you two know each other?" Laurel sighed, trying to come up with a diplomatic answer to Peter's question. There was a lot to explain. Well, they had time. But she would have rather not gone into the entire story, not with so much of it having gone unresolved, even if she had gotten married in the meantime.

" _I came all the way here from Sokovia. I've been running, and I have to stop. I've done horrible things, things that… Hydra, whatever's left of it, is after me," Laurel pled with the man standing in the door of the Sanctum, begging him to take her in, even if it was just to let her have a place to sleep for the night. "Please, I know how to fight. I've trained for it. Can you just let me in for a moment? It's pouring."_

" _I can see that," Stephen Strange replied, thinking that he should leave her outside like he was left in front of Kamar Taj. It would be a good test, but he did feel bad for her. He crossed his arms, leaning against the doorframe. She looked exhausted, and had gotten soaked on the way from the airport. She stood as close to the door as she dared, trying to stand under the little bit of an awning that offered her shelter. The girl was carrying nothing but a backpack, and was shivering in the cold wind of the October evening. He took a deep breath, stepping aside and gesturing for her to come inside._

" _Thank you," she smiled a bit, setting her things down in the front hall. She shed her coat, turning to face him again. "I researched you, you know. That's how I knew where to go. I needed someone to help me, to help me learn how to fight."_

" _I thought you knew how to fight." He shut the door, making sure to lock it behind them. "What are you trying to sell me?"_

" _I do, but it won't be enough if they come after me. I need to know how to harness the Mystic Arts. I need something more than just… being able to punch things," she laughed, wringing some of the water out of her hair._

" _Go upstairs, second door to your left. Take a shower, grab some of the robes up there - they should have your size. There used to be a lot of trainees here, but we've only got two right now. There are still a lot of old robes left, though, so I'm sure you can find your size. Anyway, go shower and change, then meet me back down here. I will teach you, but this is going to be one of the hardest courses you've ever taken. The Mystic Arts were the most difficult lessons I ever learned, and I'm a trained neurosurgeon."_

" _I won't take them lightly," Laurel promised, grabbing her bag and heading for the stairs. She would spend a majority of that evening in the dining room, going over a training plan with Stephen Strange, a training plan that would come to consume almost all of her time._

 _Laurel spent her days training, practicing the Mystic Arts until her brain hurt, until she felt physically ill. And then she would head to the library, reading up on everything she could. Or she would go running, drop into sets of pushups, or try to train her body as well as her mind. She would go to bed every night exhausted, only to wake up early in the morning to start practicing before everyone else in order to catch up. No one knew, of course, since the new recruits all constantly looked tired, but Laurel worked herself half to death._

 _It was one on one of her late nights in the practice rooms that she managed to cast a full defensive orb of light around herself. "Very nice work," Stephen nodded his approval from the door, "but I would suggest practicing that one out in the courtyard next time, just in case."_

" _Oh, uh, hi. I didn't hear you come in." She vanished the sphere, allowing him to walk over._

" _There's also an easier way to do that. Here, look. Hold your hands like this," he instructed, taking her hands and holding them up, carefully forming a sort of shield. "Not concentrate on expanding that shield until it surrounds you. There you go, very good. I knew you showed promise form the moment you set foot in the Sanctum."_

" _Thank you," Laurel managed as she formed a glowing shield around both of them. Carefully, she lowered her hands and waited, Stephen marvelling at the fact that she seemed to just let the shield hover there, as if she didn't have to concentrate on holding it in place or maintaining the spell at all. Looking over to her instructor, she snapped her fingers, making the entire thing disappear. "Impressive, huh?"_

" _Very. You had no magical training before this?"_

" _No, just a lot of combat training," she clarified, casting another protective circle and bouncing relatively harmless spells off of it. "I've wanted to try this with a grenade - you know, set one off inside one of these spheres to see how well they hold. Obviously not with me inside of it, but I think it would be an interesting idea."_

" _Again, that would be best out in the courtyard," Stephen smiled, stepping to the edge of the bubble they were in. Laurel let it dissolve as she yawned, checking her watch. Noting that it was getting awfully late, he agreed with her silent conclusion. "I do believe it's time for me to head to bed. Let me know if you want any more help training this late." He came over and gave her a hug, Laurel taken somewhat aback. Leaning in slightly, he quickly closed the gap between them. "My apologies, I-"_

" _It's alright." She pulled him in for another kiss, saying, "Goodnight, Stephen. Same time tomorrow?"_

 _And this began their ritual of staying up late to train, although how much Mystic Arts training they actually managed to do was questionable. The others never learned of this, and when they were sent off to different Sanctums, they were still none to wiser. Wong had caught on, but chose not to say anything. After all, they weren't breaking any real rules that he could find. The world was still being saved on a regular basis, so he saw no reason to interfere._

" _There's something going on across the city," Laurel said one night, standing by one of the Sanctum's giant windows. "It looks like the Avengers Tower. They're going somewhere. Looks like they have the entire flight crew going with, wherever it is."_

" _I wouldn't worry about it," Stephen yawned, looking at his watch. "It's three in the morning. Come back to bed before you're too awake."_

" _Something's wrong, Stephen. I can feel it." She turned to face him, Strange yawning again. "Sokovia's over, but it's all of them… something's going on. We need to be ready."_

 _Stephen sighed, getting up to join her. "There's nothing wrong," he promised, pulling her into a hug. "This is still about Sokovia. Not for them, but for you. You're still stuck there. No matter what you learn, no matter how far you run, you are still stuck in that tiny prison cell of an office, helping to torture children to keep yourself alive. That's what this is about. You're seeing Sokovia again."_

" _It's not Sokovia. It's the Accords. They're trying to silence us, and the Avengers… they're not going to have that. Not if they follow Steve Rogers, and I know they will. Maybe not all of them, but they aren't going to sit back and take this. I'm not either." She let go of him, headed for the closet, where she began pulling on her gear._

" _Where are you going? They're gone already."_

 _Laurel was busy zipping on her boots as she replied, "I'm heading to the Mayor's office, and then to their other hideout. They've got people all over the city, you know. They need everyone that they can get on their side. We can't hide, Stephen. We can't let them force us into hiding, force us to - we can't be unrestrained, which is why Tony Stark has his destruction relief foundation or whatever it is. But we also can't be forced into hiding. There are casualties involved in war, you know that. There have to be casualties. I hate to say it, I really do. But there are always going to be casualties."_

" _Laurel, stop. This is ridiculous -"_

" _You may have been an arrogant asshole, but you've never been the villain. You've never had to redeem yourself like that. You've had to redeem yourself, sure, but you've never been demonized in front of the entire world. You've never been a fugitive bargaining with the government for safety. You've never been… you've never seen your country destroyed, the entire life you've built there being ruined in an instant, because of the men you work for. I have to do this. If I can't be a hero, it's only a matter of time before they start painting me as a villain again. I've got a whole lot of things to make right, and the Accords can't be allowed to put a stop to them."_

" _You've proved yourself already. Remember Tony Stark's charity gala last month? There was no one there to tear you apart. They loved you. They do love you."_

 _She put a stop to his protest immediately, coming over to give him a kiss goodbye. "Goodnight, Stephen." Before Strange could reply, she had vanished down the stairs. There was the click of the front door unlocking, then locking again, and she was gone. He lay back down, watching the moonlight stream into the room and wondering when he would see her again._

 _It was a few days later when she returned, but the home that she had left was nothing like the home she came back to. Their disagreement hat night opened up the floodgates of arguments, anger, and quiet resentment that boiled over into outright hatred. It was after one of these particularly venomous spats that Laurel packed her things, heading to the Avengers Facility. Strange had stopped her on the stairs, Laurel simply shaking her head. "I'm done with this. I'm done with this egomania, this cavalier sense of not even being bothered to listen, this… this Sorcerer Supreme business making you think you're better than the rest of us. I know you fell a hell of a long way from where you were as a surgeon… thank goodness I didn't have to deal with that. But I'm not going to sit here and try to force you to be more humble, or to listen to me at all."_

" _Laurel -"_

" _Goodbye, Stephen. And good luck."_

 _He said nothing, watching as she grabbed her bag, the same bag she had shown up with on his doorstep over a year before, and left. By the time he made it to the door and looked outside, she was nowhere to be seen, already on her way to a new life with the Avengers. Strange sighed, taking his phone out of his pocket, giving Tony Stark a call. He deserved an advance warning, at least a bit of knowledge of what - of who - he was about to be dealing with._

 _That had been the night she had taken over a spare room in the Avengers Facility, the night she had first gotten to know all of them, the night she truly felt like she was becoming a hero. Not just a hero, but an Avenger. That was the night she had wandered into the library, the night she had sat down next to another man who had been demonized for his past. He wasn't a bad person, at least not to her. They were more alike than he knew, she had decided. Both of them were trying to make up for their checkered pasts, trying to be seen as more than villains. Or at least trying to live in peace._

"We used to work together," Laurel nodded, looking to Stephen for confirmation. "A long time ago, when we were different people with different lives. And now here we are again, stuck in a trap-door dimension just like old times."


	59. A Trap Door Dimension

"Say that again," Strange commanded, turning to face her, his face growing far more serious in seconds. "Exactly what you just said. Say it again, those exact words."

"Here we are again, stuck in a trap-door dimension, just like old times?" Laurel wondered, raising an eyebrow, trying to repeat it word for word. "What, what about it?"

Strange had already jumped to his feet, pacing around the group as he thought. "We could treat this just like a trap-door dimension. That could work. If you've just gotten here, your powers haven't been limited that much, at least not yet. We have to treat it like a trap-door dimension. We can work with that."

"Uh, guys? We're all missing something here. What's a trap-door dimension?" Peter asked, looking between them.

"There are regular dimensions, just like there are regular realms," Laurel explained, starting to realize what Strange had planned. "And then there are the pocket dimensions, the little spaces in between some of the regular ones, just like there are planets in the middle of other, more significant ones, planets that collect things hat come from anywhere and everywhere. Like Sakaar. Sakaar is a planet out of space - not really, but it's not anything significant until it becomes significant, just like where we are. We use trap-door dimensions to keep our enemies occupied for a while, to whisk them away while we deal with bigger threats. Then we can hurl them into the Mirror Dimension and take care of them there."

"Okay, but what does that mean?" Bucky questioned, watching as Laurel thought everything over. "Practically, what does it mean?"

"It means we can escape, just like we could escape a trap-door dimension or a planet like - what did you call it? Sakaar?" Strange determined, looking to Laurel for support.

"Sakaar," she nodded. "I've only been there once, but it was a collection point, kind of like this. It was a place for things that didn't quite fit in with the rest of the universe. And… I'm not sure what that means for us, but if I can travel between Sakaar and the rest of the universe… if I can move between Valhalla and Midgard, between the living and the dead, I might be able to do something about this."

Maria was the first one to speak up. "Thanos is using you to manipulate the others, right? He wants to make sure they can't attack him because he has you. That also means he's going to need to keep proving to them that you're alive. He's going to take you out of here."

"I can't bring you all with me then, but if I can somehow get ahold of the stones, even just one of them, I could do something. I just need to be on the outside looking in, not the other way around."

"Reality. Go for the reality stone, and then you can control what he sees," Fury advised, a couple of the others agreeing. "Control what he sees and you control what he does. It's like what Wanda can do. Make him believe a completely different story."

Stephen Strange was shaking his head. "Time would be better. You can just reverse the whole thing, and you already know how to control it. Not only is it smarter, but it's safer in your hands."

"You could just take the soul stone and all of us with it," Star-Lord suggested. They all called him Star-Lord there, since Peter wanted to be the "original" Peter on the team. Laurel had befriended him quickly, since he always had a joke or a story for them about his travels throughout the galaxy. "Get the hell out of here and then find a way to free us."

"Power would solve a lot of problems," Bucky thought, "since it could be used to try to control the others."

Laurel crossed her arms, bringing up the one big issue with their plan. "I've got to get them away from him first. I've got him and the Black Order to deal with, and then I've got to figure out how to wield one of the stones without an object to help. There are very few people in the universe who can do that and live."

"You are not human," Drax reminded her. "You are far stronger."

She shook her head sadly, admitting that, "I may be a goddess, but I am still mortal. I am still a human, even if I have the powers of a goddess. I'm not even Asgardian. None of you have anything that could control it? Stephen, you've still got the rest of the Eye of Agamotto. That's a start," she realized, glancing at the pendant that still hung from his neck, it's glowing gem having been plucked from it ages ago. "I'll need more than one if I want to go up against him, but the Eye of Agamotto is a good place to start."

Stephen obediently handed over the pendant, knowing that she was his best student, and that if anyone could handle the power of the Time Stone, she could. Now all they had to do was bide their time, which, at least for Laurel, proved difficult. Coming from a world where she could travel wherever she wanted on a moment's notice, a world full of challenges and adventures, this was incredibly boring. But they made the best of it, telling stories and learning new things about each other as they waited.

Sleeping in the Soul World was the weirdest thing. There was no real day or night, and they could nap whenever they wanted, but everyone tried to agree on when they thought nighttime was and go to sleep at the same time. Everyone had their own routine when it was time for bed. Drax would patrol the area for a bit, finally settling down once everyone else had made their beds from their jackets and overcoats. Bucky slept on his metal arm, since it wouldn't go numb if he used it as a pillow. Wanda would suspend herself a few inches in the air, trying to make some sort of bed out of the red sparks that defined her magic. She had offered to make beds for the others, some of them accepting and others preferring to sleep on the ground that wasn't really ground, but a close substitute.

Occasionally other groups of people would wander over, saying hello and trying to make friends, since there was nothing to do in the Soul World, nothing but people and seemingly endless space. Everyone seemed to form groups, family members trying to find each other and individuals banding together to avoid the inevitable loneliness of the Soul World. People adopted children that were wandering around as their own, providing them with something like a family. No one quite knew what else to do.

" _Laurel?" Loki reached out for her, trying to take her hand but being stopped by some sort of force field. It was like they were separated by a pane of glass, something that kept them separated, but only inches apart. "Laurel, love, I can't reach you."_

" _Loki?" she smiled at the sight of him, putting her hand up to the glass. He put his hand up to hers, longing to touch her, to be able to grab her hand and pull her out of the strange place she was stuck in. It was nice enough to see a friendly face, but she wished she could reach him "Is it really you?"_

" _Want me to tell you about the birthmark on your ribs again?" he smirked, making her laugh. "It's me, love. I'm going to find a way to get you out of here. I'm going to get you out of here, and I'm going to make Thanos pay."_

" _I've been here for so long," she sighed, noting the pain in Loki's eyes. "I don't know how long it's been, but it feels like forever. Everyone here is okay. No one gets hurt, and no one… they miss our world, everyone they left behind. But we're alright. We're going to find a way out of here."_

" _I know, love. And I'm so proud of you, so proud of you for sacrificing so much."_

" _You gave up a lot too, Loki," she reminded him, trying to will her hand to break through the glass. It felt bulletproof, like something she couldn't break without the right equipment. Even magic wasn't working, something she had rarely encountered. Every spell bounced off. "You gave up a hell of a lot. But I'm coming back, I promise."_

 _The scene shifted, Laurel and Loki suddenly together, curled up on one of the sofas in the Avengers Facility. He looked like he had been crying, or like he hadn't slept in days. Maybe both. "Love?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Please come back to me. I need you to come back to me."_

" _I will. I'm trying. I'm really trying. I'd like nothing more than to be able to come back and be with you and live a normal life, even if it's just for a week or two before the next catastrophe hits. Loki -"_

"She's crying." Peter's voice. He sounded like he was standing next to her, which made sense, since he had fallen asleep nearby. "She's not saying anything, but she's crying."

Laurel felt a cool hand on her shoulder, Mantis' voice answering him. "She dreams of him. She always dreams of him, but this one… it is beautiful. She longs to be back with her love."

"Yes she does," Laurel yawned, sitting up to see Mantis, Peter, and Star-Lord crouched down beside her. Buck joined them a moment later, asking if she was alright. "We're going to get out of here," she resolved. "We're going to get out of here, and make that giant raisin beg for something as sweet and merciful as pain."

* * *

A.N.: Thank you all for the wonderful reviews! I'm trying my best to fix everything that happened in Infinity War, but it's gonna take a while... Infinity War wrecked me, and it'll take a lot to turn it around. But don't worry, like Loki, I've always got a plan.


	60. Biding Our Time

Loki hadn't slept in days, and hadn't let the others sleep much either. Instead, he had been doing everything he could to research the Infinity Stones, chugging entire pots of coffee while he was working and strategizing with the others. It took a lot for him not to snap at them, all of the Avengers eventually giving in to the weak need for sleep while he stayed up, buzzed on coffee, energy drinks, and sheer fear, which he was desperately trying to mask. It was on one of these late nights in the library, after everyone else had quite and gone to sleep, that he discovered something interesting. "Loki."

The voice was coming from a portal, one he had opened to look into Titan from Midgard. "Laurel?" There was no one looking through it, but he was sure that she was talking to him. Either that, or it was the lack of sleep and over-caffeination finally getting to him. "Laurel, love?"

"Loki, I can't talk for long. I'm trying to project my voice out of here, and I don't know how long it'll hold. We're trapped in the Soul Stone, but not for long. We've got a plan. I've got a plan. I just need you all to meet me on Titan in the next few days. He should be letting me out to send you all a message tomorrow. Meet me here. I love you. I've got to go, but I love you."

"I'll be there," he promised, standing next to the portal and trying desperately to see anything. "And I love you."

"I'm going to try everything I can to keep him distracted, but I don't know how long I can hold him off on my own," Laurel told him, "but I'll try."

"I'll bring an army," Loki vowed, wishing he could see the woman that he was talking to. "I'll get everyone I can."

"Good. I've got to go. I can't keep this up, but I love you. Goodbye, Loki."

"I love you too. Goodbye, Laurel. I'll see you soon."

The voice fell silent, Loki knowing deep down that she had gone. It had been like a momentary burst of a dying star, a burst of light before the inevitable blackness of space returned. But he knew it had been her. It would take a hell of a lot of explaining to get the others to understand what he had heard, let alone believe him, but he knew it was her. _Titan. Go to Titan and confront Thanos. With what, though? You don't have anything more powerful than yourselves._ They weren't close to finding a way to take him on, but clearly, Laurel had come up with something. He resolved to just trust her, grabbing his books and going for a walk, took keyed-up to sleep.

On Titan, Laurel was biding her time. She was trapped in the Soul World, but she was just biding her time. They had all put together a plan, and were ready to start acting on it as soon as Thanos plucked her from the Soul Stone to record another message for the Avengers. It was only a matter of time. So she sat with the others, telling stories and getting to know each other. She filled them in on what had happened since they disappeared, and how they had never stopped looking for a way to get to the Soul World. They told her about the people and animals that they had met there, how things had been organizing within the Soul World to give people some semblance of normal.

Laurel and Bucky bonded pretty quickly, sharing stories about their adventures with Steve and knowing what it was like to be painted as a villain no matter what. The two of them knew, a lot more than the others did, what it felt like to be hated by the world, to have become the target of an international manhunt and a press smear campaign. "What do you want to do when you get out of here?" Laurel asked one 'night', rolling over to face him. "What's the first thing you want to do?"

Bucky adjusted his arm, turning to look at her. "I'm going to take a real shower, eat a real meal, and then start catching up on everything I missed, during these few years and from before. You miss a hell of a lot when you're a brainwashed assassin."

"You miss a hell of a lot being locked up in a Sokovian fortress," Laurel agreed, "and when you're on the run. I got kind of caught up when I was working in the Sanctum, but I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get here and how to get Loki out of Valhalla. I'm more than a bit behind."

"Peter's been telling me about these things called memes… I've hardly paid attention to the Internet, but they're supposed to be everywhere on there. You know what I want?" he suddenly realized. "A good milkshake, from this old diner like we had in the 40s, before everything was rationed. I wonder if there's a good place in Brooklyn any more."

"I'm sure there is. There's got to be. Hey, we don't have to eat here, do we? I haven't been hungry in I don't know how long."

"We're dead, technically," Bucky sighed, "so I guess not. I haven't been hungry since I got here, and I haven't keeled over yet, so I guess not. I almost miss it, though."

Laurel yawned, saying, "I miss knowing what time it is. I miss day and night. I miss having something to look at other than the weird expanse that we're stuck in. You guys are great, but I miss being home, even with Thanos lurking out there. I miss it. I miss having things to do that aren't… sitting around and telling stories and playing games. It's weird, isn't it? That I miss having to save the world?"

"I've had enough of that for a while," Bucky replied, thinking back to the battle in Wakanda, "but I know what you mean. I miss having more to do than this. This wasn't exactly how I wanted to end up lying low for a while."

"Hey guys?" Peter asked from Laurel's other side. "What do you think is going to happen when we get out, and suddenly the whole world that's gotten used to not having all of us just… has everyone back? Everyone who's moved on and found other people, the parents who lost their kids and had more - wait, what's gonna happen when the earth suddenly gets really heavy? Do you think there'll be a huge earthquake when we all pop back onto Earth at once? They've already had to deal with all of those plane crashes and nuclear meltdowns and everything when pilots and stuff disappeared. A giant earthquake would be... it would just add more fuel to the fire, right?"

"We'd bring people back slowly if we were worried about that," Bucky explained, carefully measuring his words. "We'd find a way to fix it. I'm assuming we're going to figure out a plan before we bring everybody back. One problem at a time, though, kid. One problem at a time."

Laurel rolled over to look at Peter, promising that, "If I can, I'll bring all of you back first. Then we'll figure out how to bring everyone else back. I can't bring… what is it, four billion? I can't bring four billion people back to Earth on my own. Let alone bringing back the rest of the universe too, one by one." Peter closed his eyes, Laurel sighing and realizing how much he still looked like the scared kid that had first joined the team. He could put on a brave face in the middle of battle, and he could pretend to be as strong as the others, but deep down, she could see the same fear that she saw in Loki sometimes, when he thought she wasn't paying attention. "It's going to be alright," she promised, reaching out and squeezing his arm.

Opening his eyes again, Peter nodded a bit. "I miss them, you know? My friends graduated without me. They're probably off in college now, and they only think -"

"Peter, they still come over and visit your Aunt May. They celebrate your birthday with her, and they all help decide on the winners of the Peter Parker Memorial Scholarship," Laurel told him. "They still care about you. They'll always care about you." She turned to stare up at the sky, the orange-ish sky that looked so much like the ground, like everything else in the Soul World. "I had a friend back in Sokovia… well, I say a friend. He was as close to a friend as I could have there. We worked together."

He nodded along, trying to picture Sokovia from what he had heard about it. Laurel had told them all stories of her work there, of what she had originally done, of how she had run and was trying to turn her life around. "Was he a superhero too?"

"Yeah. He was fast. Really fast. We were as much of friends as we could be, considering… I worked for the facility that was trying to train him to be a killer, a weapon that they could use against the Avengers and anyone else who stood in their way. I was in charge of determining if they were holding their abilities back, if they were trying to fool the people in charge. I was also in charge of deciding how much more experimentation they could take before breaking. But I would constantly underestimate my numbers, just so they could have some peace. I tried my best to let them off easy, but it wouldn't always work. Anyway, he was killed in a battle to save the city, to save the citizens while they were being evacuated. We still miss him. I know his sister misses him terribly. That's why she joined us. She wanted to redeem herself too. But she has never forgotten him, and neither have we. We still care about him, and we still miss him. Your friends still care about you, and they still miss you. When you lose someone like that, you never forget it. You can't forget it. You can't forget them."

"We're going to get out of here," Peter resolved, his voice as steady as he could make it. After a few years in the Soul World, he had lost a lot of hope, but if Laurel could get there, there was a way in. If there was a way in, there must be a way out.

"Yes we are, kid," came Bucky's voice from Laurel's other side. "We're going to get out of here, and I'm going to destroy that giant raisin myself."


	61. The Infinity Stones

Early the next day, Laurel was sitting with Peter and Bucky when she felt herself disappearing. It was a strange feeling, but she knew that she was being plucked out of the Soul World for a reason. "I'll be back for you all, I promise. I -" Within the blink of an eye, she was gone.

"She's got the Eye. If she can get the Time Stone, she's got a chance," Bucky noted, staring at the spot where his friend had just vanished from. "She's going to be okay."

Peter agreed, calling the others over and telling them to get ready. "She'll be back for us, but she's going to need our help. We have to be ready for a fight. Even if our powers really aren't working right in here, we've got to try."

Laurel was dropped onto the rocky surface of Titan, Thanos smiling at her as she got up. "Hello there, my dear. I'm going to need you to smile for me and tell your little friends that you're still alive."

"Alright," she said numbly, dusting herself off and taking a deep breath. She didn't make a move, but was already analyzing the situation. Thanos reached for the Infinity Gauntlet, preparing to use the Space Stone to project her image onto Earth. But he had no chance.

He was interrupted by the arrival of a blue woman, a woman who looked more like a machine than a real person. "Father," she nodded, her voice ringing with a metallic note.

"My daughter has returned to me. Perhaps she has seen the light, all of the reason that she neglected in the past?" Thanos offered her his hand, the woman shaking her head.

"You murdered my sister!" She leapt forward, Laurel seeing her chance to strike. As the blue woman rushed her father, brandishing something that looked sort of like a gun, Laurel rolled out of her way, knocking over the pedestal that held the Infinity Gauntlet. It rolled out of reach, Laurel following it as Thanos tried to stop his daughter.

He chuckled a bit, shaking his head as he knocked the gun out of her hand, a beam of light firing into the air. "No, daughter. Don't you see how much better the universe is now? There is far less war, far less starvation -"

"You destroyed her and her entire planet! Who knows how many other planets you've killed off!" The blue woman was still struggling, trying to fight her father's grasp as he crushed her weapon with one stomp of his boot, and as he started to crush her in his hand. Laurel felt like she was about to freeze, seeing not the woman but Loki hanging there, having the life crushed out of him again. She had to do something. "You will never be my father!" Thanos threw her to the ground, the woman struggling to get up as she rebuilt herself.

"Ahem." Laurel cleared her throat, Thanos and his daughter turning to look at her. She flashed a mischievous smile at him, shaking her head as she held up the now glowing Eye of Agamotto. It was the stone she had seen for months, the stone Stephen Strange had begun to let her train with. The source of a lot of his power, and now the source of hers. With a small wave of her hand, glowing green bands appeared around her wrists. "I don't think so."

She wound everything back, time reverting just a minute into the past. "You destroyed her and her entire planet! Who knows how many other planets you've killed off!" Thanos made a move to step on the blue woman's weapon, Laurel kicking it out of his way before he could reach it. He shook his head, dropping his daughter again.

So she wound back a few seconds more. "You destroyed her and her entire planet! Who knows how many other planets you've killed off!" This time, Laurel was by his side, conjuring a knife and stabbing him in the elbow, forcing him to let go of his daughter before he could hurt her. With a howl of pain, he reached for the Infinity Gauntlet, no longer complete, but still the best weapon in the universe.

"No," Laurel commanded, winding back a second and giving the woman more time to reach her weapon. "Don't you get it? I can do this all day," she called, winding back a bit more as Thanos grabbed the Gauntlet. She was reminded of Stephen telling her how he had trapped Dormammu, the ruler of the Dark Dimension, in a time loop until he surrendered. As Thanos pulled the Gauntlet onto his hand, she wound time back again, but this time opened a portal into a trap-door dimension, casting him inside before closing it off completely. "Go, I can't hold him off for very long. Destroy it!"

The woman raced for the Gauntlet, which had clattered to the ground, but the trap-door dimension was beginning to unravel already. Laurel fought it as long as she could, but the boundary between dimensions had grown thin, sparking until Thanos reappeared, angrier than ever. "You foolish girl, there was no way you could ever stop me. Not with your tricks, not with your sad excuses for magic -"

A low voice interrupted him, causing them all to turn. "She might not be able to stop you on her own, but she's not alone." Loki grinned, materializing by Laurel's side. "Where is your Black Order now? Isn't it quiet here? It's because we've already taken them down. I do believe you're the one who's alone now."

"You," Thanos roared, about to charge at him. Suddenly, though, he found himself suspended in midair. The other Avengers too were frozen, stopped in time. Loki looked to the blue woman, seeing that she too was still. He raised an eyebrow, as if to ask Laurel what she was doing.

"I can't completely freeze time for very long," she explained, "since I haven't mastered using the Eye like Stephen has. But this is it. This is probably our final battle. If he wins now, he can't let us live. So I figured I'd stop time and tell you that I love you, just in case one or both of us end up in Valhalla for good." She grabbed his shirt, pulling him in for a kiss. "I love you, Loki."

"I love you too. Now let's take care of him once and for all."

Laurel gave him a second to move before snapping her fingers, everyone else unfreezing. They hadn't felt more than the blink of an eye go by, launching right back into action. As the rest of the Avengers rushed at Thanos, trying to keep him occupied, Laurel flexed her magic, pulling the Infinity Gauntlet over to where she stood, far out of his reach. She nodded to Loki, tossing it to him as she ripped a hole in time and space.

Steve and Tony were busy holding Thanos off, Laurel moving the dimensional rip closer to him until they were forced to move or be sucked into a different dimension. Thanos was pulled right through, Laurel jumping in after him and closing the portal. On titan, all had fallen silent, the Avengers looking around at each other. "Where did she go?" Nat asked, looking around at the rest of her team.

Magically pulling the rest of the Infinity Stones from the Gauntlet, Loki didn't look up as he answered. "She's banishing him to a mirror dimension. She'll be back in a moment, but we've got to get these separated." He levitated the Reality Stone from its holding and into a small bubble, where it could be safely contained for the time being. The others gathered around as he continued to work, plucking the stones from their spots in the Gauntlet and casting them into the bubble he had made out of the fabric of space.

Inside the mirror dimension, Laurel found herself floating with Thanos in front of her, stripped of all of his Infinity Stones, all of the power he held. "You were right, you know," she offered, watching him float through space. Clearly he hadn't had a lot of experience with being stuck in dimensions like these. "You were right. The universe is outgrowing itself. We do need to slow down. But no one person should have the power to do it. No one should be able to snap their fingers and kill off half of the universe, even if it was a random selection. No one person deserves all of that power."

"I've done so much for you, for all of us. Is your world not better off because of it?"

"No," Laurel frowned. "We may have been overpopulated, but the suffering is far greater now because of what you've done. Now I'm going to give you the peace you wanted for so long." She extended her hand, forcing him backwards, further into the mirror dimension, before opening up the rift again, popping back over to Titan. With a snap of her fingers, she closed the dimensional rift off, trapping Thanos in the mirror dimension for good.

Loki floated a bubble of space filled with the Infinity Stones over to her. "These are yours, love."

She took a deep breath, addressing the others. "We need to separate these. All we really need is the Soul Stone, to figure out how to get everyone else out of there. As the current… I don't want to call myself the master of these stones, but as the current possessor of them all, I think we need to divvy them up."

"And what do you suggest?" Tony asked, taking his mask off.

"We're going to take most of these back with us for the time being, but they're going to be divided. The Mind Stone will go into a new Vision, as best as we can build him. The Time Stone goes back with Stephen. The Space Stone can go back to Asgard, and the Power Stone," she turned to look at the blue woman, who had introduced herself as Nebula, one of Thanos' daughters, "the Power Stone deserves someone who can control it, and control it wisely." Laurel plucked the stone from the bubble that Loki had given her, encasing it in a smaller piece of space. "Take this, and protect it in something. You're the new ruler of Titan. Use it wisely, and keep it safe."

"I will," Nebula promised, accepting the stone and carefully holding onto the protective sphere Laurel had put it in.

"I'll hold onto the Reality Stone and keep it safe. A lot of my magic is based of of illusions and transforming reality, so I can learn how to handle it. Once we're done wit it, we can return the Soul Stone to the planet that once protected it," Laurel proposed. One by one, the others agreed, nodding their approval.

Nebula remained on Titan with the Power Stone, starting to rebuild the once mighty planet. The others hopped into a spacecraft that Thor had hidden in Asgard, taking off for the Avengers Facility. As they took off, Laurel dropped into a chair in the back of the craft. The sphere of space hovered near her, holding most of the remaining stones. The Time Stone still hung around her neck in the Eye of Agamotto. Loki took the seat next to her, taking his wife's hand in silence. "You're the most powerful person in the universe right now," he remarked, running his thumb over her hand. "I think it's kind of… hot."

"Thanks, but as soon as we get home, we've got work to do," she smirked, turning to face him. The others were all closer to the front of the ship, either talking to Thor, who was busy piloting them home, or chatting amongst themselves, brushing off the dirt of battle. "I want to get the others out of the stone, and get the other stones divided up. Then I can rest for a bit, before I figure out how to get half of the universe out of the Soul Stone. Tony and Bruce can start working on Vision 2.0, and we'll have to build something - maybe a new Tesseract - to hold the Space Stone and the Reality Stone. You know," she thought aloud, "the Space Stone will need a guardian. Even if he's not always there with it, even if he's not always on Asgard, maybe it should be one of the princes. It's fitting enough."

"I would be honored," Loki smiled. "But are you going to rebuild Asgard?"

"I'm going to try to use the Time Stone to selectively rewind and bring it back. We can deal with your sister when the time comes. For now, though, I think I want a nap."

"We've got a few hours' flight at least," Loki told her. "I'm just glad you got out of there. I'm glad I have you back, love."

"I'm glad I have you back too." Laurel lay her head on his shoulder, falling asleep almost as soon as her eyes were closed.


	62. Reunion

As soon as they had parked at the Avengers Facility, Laurel was in Tony's lab, starting her work on the Infinity Stones. The Time Stone still hanging around her neck in the form of the Eye of Agamotto, she separated the remaining four stones, encasing each of them in their own small pocket of space. She left the Reality, Mind, and Space Stones with Tony, who had said a brief hello to Pepper and rushed down to the labs to start working on ways to contain them all. They would need a new Tesseract, something to contain the Reality Stone, and a new version of Vision. Bruce would be joining him there soon.

Leaving Tony in his lab with three of the stones, Laurel (complete with the Eye of Agamotto, which she had vowed to keep with her at all times, at least until she could return it to Stephen, and the Reality Stone, which she kept in a pocket of space) set out for the library with the Soul Stone, where she found Loki dozing off, a book in his hands. She smiled to herself, realizing that he must have been awake for ages, trying to figure out how to get her out of the Soul World. So she left him there, heading for the roof and taking a seat in the shade.

As the Goddess of Death, she could travel between the worlds of the living and the dead, no matter where. It only made sense that she could travel into the Soul World, but she wanted to be sure. There had to be a way to test it, a way to find out if she could bring people in and out of the Soul World without having to worry about much. Summoning an apple from the kitchen, she balanced the Soul Stone in a cradle of light before sending the apple through, summoning it back. Inspecting it carefully, she found that it hadn't changed. It was just as red and shiny, and seemed like nothing had affected it. Carefully, she took a bite, finding that it tasted like any normal apple would.

Taking a deep breath, she decided that she had to go in and pull someone out, like it or not. It was now or never. Her test had gone well, so it had to be safe. Right? Willing herself to jump right into the Soul World, she closed her eyes, seeing nothing but darkness, and then a sudden warm light in front of her eyelids. "You're back! What happened? Is that…?" Peter was the first to appear at her side, Laurel giving him a hug hello.

"It worked. It all worked," she smiled, looking around the group, which was slowly gathering around her. "We've got the stones. Nebula, Thanos' daughter, has the Power Stone on Titan. We've got the rest, but they're going to be separated once we encase them in something protective, like we did with the Eye. But for now, I'm going to bring all of you back, so we can figure out how to fix everything together."

Peter was the first one to go back with her. Laurel took his hand, holding onto him tightly as they jumped through dimensions, landing back on the roof of the Avengers Facility. He marveled at the building, at the sky, at having actual ground under his feet. But the best part was Laurel leading him quietly through the library, creeping past where Loki had fallen asleep, and out into the hall. They continued into a different wing of the building, headed for the laboratories. They waved to Bruce, who was busily analyzing the Space Stone and working on building a new Tesseract, coming to a stop in front of the door next to his lab. "Tony?" Laurel knocked, cracking the door open a bit. "Can I bother you for a minute?"

Tony looked up from where he had begun melding Vibranium into a new skeletal basis for Vision. "Sure. What's up? Should I order something for dinner? What do you have a taste for, since you took care of that giant purple alien for us? Anything you want, your pick."

"I think we should let someone else pick. Someone who hasn't had good takeout in years. I'm sure he'd like that." She stepped aside to reveal Peter, who tore through the lab to give Tony a hug and say hello. She hadn't seen Tony that happy in a long time. Peter's death had taken a great toll on him, even though he had tried his best to hide it from the rest of them. He had been utterly devastated.

She left the two of them there, heading back through the library to the rooftop. It was easy now, popping in and out of the Soul World with someone in tow. This time, the hand she held onto was colder, more metallic. Bucky gave her his hand, trusting his new friend with his life and stepping closer as she whisked them back to Earth. This time, they made their way to the kitchen, where a few of the others were busy raiding the cabinets for a post-mission, pre-dinner snack. "Hey, Steve, can I borrow you for a sec?" Laurel asked, leaning on the door frame. "I need your help with something."

"Sure, what is it?" He followed her out into the hall, where Bucky was waiting to surprise him. "Buck, oh my - Laurel, thank you." He trapped both of them in a bear hug, Laurel beaming as she left the two of them to catch up.

Sam and Wanda waited for each other, both of them going to see if Tony needed help with his Vision project as soon as they were back. They had gotten to know each other fairly well in the Soul World, sharing stories about the horrific battles they had been in, and dreams of a peaceful future. Nick Fury and Maria Hill joined them soon after, going to say hello to the team and greet some of the others they had worked with years before.

Mantis, Groot, and Drax went to find Rocket as soon as they were brought back, marveling at the facility and at the view that they had from the rooftop. Only Star-Lord paused, thanking her and asking if she could bring people back who weren't in the Soul World, but had been killed by Thanos anyway. "I can try," Laurel told him. "What afterlife am I looking in?"

"She was a Zen Whoberi, if that tells you anything," he shrugged. "I don't know where they go, but if anyone can help, it would be you."

"Hold on a sec." Laurel raised her hands, opening a portal into what looked like, at least to him, a black hole. She jumped inside it, returning a few minutes later with a green-skinned woman. As she closed the portal, she cast another handful of spells. "I can't do this for everyone, so don't go telling the rest of the world that I can do this, but as the Goddess of Death, well, I kind of can do these things. Just don't die again, okay?"

"I'll try my best," the woman smiled, taking Star-Lord's hand and leading him downstairs to reunite with the others.

T'Challa thanked her profusely when she brought him back, promising that she would be greeted as a hero in Wakanda, and would be welcome to visit whenever she wanted. "You are also a Princess of Asgard," he reminded her as they walked downstairs together, "and you would be welcomed as a foreign dignitary with the highest honors. Your husband as well. You have done a great service to the universe."

"Thank you. We will welcome your entire family to Asgard, whenever you want to visit. It would be an honor, for us and for our people."

Stephen Strange was the last one she brought back, pausing on the roof to thank her and to apologize. "I had a lot of time to think when I was trapped there," he offered, accepting the Time Stone back from her. Hanging the Eye of Agamotto around his neck, he inspected the glowing green stone. It felt good to have it back. It felt right, like a little bit of order had been restored to the universe, even though there was still so much chaos that they had to sort out. "You were right. You were right, and you had to fight for what you believed in, even if it meant fighting me. I'm sorry I was so cruel about it. I've found that I'm sorry for a lot of things."

"Well, I wasn't perfectly nice either. But we've got a lot more to tackle than the problems of our pasts, don't we? You've got a Sanctum to take over again, but I'm also going to need your help. I've got a lot of plans that I need the real master of the Time Stone for. And I'm going to need your help bringing the other half of the universe back," she told him, encasing the Soul Stone in a bubble of protective magic once again. "I think we've had enough time to put aside our differences, don't you?"

"That we have," he agreed, following her back into the library. "We have bigger things to deal with now."

That night after dinner, T'Challa took off for Wakanda, eager to reunite with his family and set things right in his kingdom. He would call them when he got there, thanking them again and letting everyone say hello to the rest of the royal family. Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Mantis, Groot, and Rocket borrowed Thor's ship and began the journey back to Titan, where they were planning on reuniting with Nebula to rebuild the planet and start restoring order to the universe, preparing for the arrival of the billions of people trapped in the Soul World. Peter went home with his Aunt May, who was overjoyed at having him back. He promised he would make it to the Avengers Facility to do everything he could to help take care of the rest of the stones, if she ever let him out of her sight again.

Everyone else stayed at the Avengers Facility that night, taking up spare rooms or sleeping on the sofas. Stephen was going to set out for the Sanctum in the morning with Laurel, so she could move all of her and Loki's things out and he could talk to Wong for a while before they returned to get to work on the Soul Stone. Fury and Maria were also planning on leaving in the morning. Bucky, on the other hand, was moving in, taking one of the empty rooms down the hall from Laurel and Loki's. Eventually everyone would have a place to stay, but for now, they were all just glad to have somewhere to sleep, hot showers, and real food.

Late that night, after she had spent hours talking with everyone and helping them to get settled in, finding pillows and blankets for their guests, Laurel made it back to her room, finding Loki sitting in bed with a book. Without a word, she finally changed out of her battle gear, getting ready for bed before coming to lay down next to him. "You know you saved the entire universe today," he remarked, closing his book and wrapping his arms around her.

"Yeah. All in a day's work, right?"

"All in a day's work," he agreed. "I love you, Laurel. And I will never get tired of saying it."

"I love you too, Loki. Sorry if I fall asleep, because I'm exhausted," she yawned. "I've done enough saving the universe for a while, but there's still a lot left to do. For now, though, I want to sleep."

"You deserve it, love," he smiled, kissing the top of her head. "You deserve it."


	63. A Hello from Hela

As everyone else got settled in at the Avengers Facility, Laurel and Stephen Strange set to work at the Sanctum. They had passed their classes over to Wong and Loki for the time being, purely focusing on fixing all that had gone wrong because of Thanos. Step one was to test their theory of how to bring everyone back on one small planet - Asgard.

"If we rewind one specific point in time, I believe we can bring back Asgard and all of the Asgardians who were massacred," Stephen said, handing Laurel a cup of coffee and guiding her to where he had several books laid out on the Sanctum's kitchen table. "It will take some complicated speallwork, but I believe I can wind back that specific point in space and time, and bring the planet back from it's destruction. You'll have to work on bringing back the massacred people, and then work on getting them out of the Soul World as a group. But theoretically, it's possible."

The two of them settled down to read over all that he had collected over the past few days, outlining a plan and going over every detail to be absolutely sure that they hadn't forgotten anything and that both of them were on the same page. As the clock struck ten at night, Laurel's phone buzzed. "Hello, love, it's your wonderful husband just wondering where you are."

"We're still at work, Loki," she sighed, getting up to stretch and take in the incredible pile of books they had already gone through. "I'd say just eat something with the others, if you haven't already. We ordered Chinese. I'll be home in a little while, okay? By midnight for sure. We're going to try to bring Asgard back tomorrow. I'm going to need you and Thor to come with me, so let him know for me, okay? I love you."

Stephen looked up from his book as she ended the call, remarking, "The last time he was here, he tried to kill me. It was quite funny, actually."

"He's been here since then," she told him, sitting down and reaching for another book. Leaning back in her chair, she added, "He's not that bad, no matter what you seem to think."

"I'm sure. I did throw him into an endless falling loop," Strange admitted, going back to work.

The next morning, Stephen, Laurel, Loki, and Thor had all assembled in one of the Sanctum's training rooms, readying themselves for a long day. Thor and Loki were allowed to relax while Stephen and Laurel got to work, standing in the middle of the room and opening a portal to another dimension, extending their workspace to allow themselves to bring Asgard back. Slowly, and extreme care, Stephen began rewinding one point in time. Laurel watched as he located the currently burning Asgard, winding time backwards.

Asgard, once engulfed in the flames of Sutur, became a paradise once again, Stephen rebuilding the palace and putting things back in order. "You've got to get Thor and Loki. You'll only have a few minutes to get them and transport yourselves there before time goes on, which means Hela will come back. If you take care of her, I can transport Asgard out of this dimension and back to where it once was."

Laurel stepped away, pulling Thor and Loki into the portal with her and explaining the plan. "Give us thirty seconds, and we can be on Asgard," she instructed Stephen, taking Thor and Loki's hands and transporting them into the middle of an empty city center.

"Well, well, well, I would have expected a few more people here to see my grand entrance," came Hela's voice, Laurel turning to face her as Hela looked her over from her position on the top of the stairs. Had there been anyone else on Asgard, they would have flocked to the middle of the city, coming to see the woman who was so eager to subjugate them. "And who are you, my dear?" Loki stepped forward, defensively positioning himself in front of Laurel. "Oh, brother, dear, how protective of her you are! Is she your little Midgardian pet? How cute. I thought for a while that you would be the strong one. But you really are just as weak, just as willing to bend to the whims of a creature we once saw as less than the dirt we walk -"

"She is nothing of the sort," Loki spat, drawing his knives reflexively. Laurel couldn't help but admire how defensive he was, even if it just angered Hela more. "She is a goddess."

"A goddess?" Hela laughed, cracking a beastly smile. "A goddess? She is barely worth being called a living being. You must remember what the humans are, Loki. Insignificant specks of dust in the eyes of the universe, compared to us. "

"I may be human, but I'm also the Goddess of Death," Laurel smiled, crossing her arms at a very confused Hela. Though she tried to hide it, Hela definitely was not expecting that kind of an answer. "That must count for something, even if I am an insignificant speck of dust in the eyes of the universe. Maybe a little bit more important than that. Not by much, but it must mean something."

"Oh no, dear, I am the Goddess of Death," she sneered, shaking her head.

"Your parents believed they needed a new Goddess of Death when you died. You were killed once, which, really, tells me that you can be beaten again. You see, there's only one way your story can end, and that's with meeting death for yourself. They took your powers and granted them to - what did you call me? Ah, a little Midgardian. Less than the dirt you walk on."

As Hela tried to curse her, Laurel laughed, pulling the Reality Stone from her pocket and using it to warp everything Hela could see. In her mind, she was in the middle of battle, surrounded by fighters on all sides. In reality, Thor, Loki, and Laurel rushed at her, combining their powers to stun her completely. A massive crack of thunder, followed by bolts of ice, froze the once-glorious Goddess of Death in place. She could feel the cold, but there was nothing she could do, still trying desperately to see through the illusions that Laurel had created with the Reality Stone.

Laurel stepped back, letting Thor and Loki hold their sister in place while she opened up a portal to the mirror dimension, throwing the goddess inside and sealing her off there forever. "That should hold up a little better than Hel did," Laurel breathed, suddenly tired from the strain of using the Reality Stone. She sat down on the closest set of steps, looking to Thor. "You should probably check the vaults. If everything is exactly as it was before Ragnarok, you should still have that crown or helmet or whatever it was that held Sutur in place. I'd double check for that, just in case. Oh, and the casing for the Tesseract might be there too."

Thor took the hint right away, heading for the vaults as Loki sat down next to her. "You haven't mastered the stone yet, have you?" Loki asked, putting an arm around his wife.

"No. Tony's working on a couple of bracelets or a necklace or something to hold it, since it's really a liquid. It can be divided, according to him, as long as the pieces are used together. I don't know the science behind it, but I doubt he knows too much about it either," she admitted, leaning her head on his shoulder. "I had to use a bit of that Asgardian magic to get the illusion to work properly, but it worked, and that's what matters."

"Well, you'll just have to practice your illusions more," Loki shrugged, watching as Thor made his way back with the Tesseract in hand. It was no longer glowing, but with the addition of the Space Stone, it would be restored to its former glory. And stored in the Asgardian vaults for safekeeping, of course.

The three of them joined hands again, leaving Asgard completely empty and returning to the astral dimension where Stephen was waiting. "We did it," Laurel told him. "We've got the Tesseract too. One less thing to worry about."

"Laurel did it," Thor corrected as they returned to the Sanctum, all of them taking a moment to sit down and regroup.

"With the help of Stephen and a couple of gods, but sure. I'll take some of the credit for it. We've done a lot, but we also still have to bring the Asgardians back," Laurel reminded him. "And Heimdall. We're far from out of the woods yet."

"Well, I can bring the remaining Asgardians back," Thor resolved, "if you can open a portal from here to Norway, and then one there that leads directly to Asgard. We would have half of the planet there already, while you all work here." Laurel nodded, opening a portal for him to get to Norway. It would take a little while to get everyone packed and ready to go, so she waited on opening a portal to the newly restored Asgard.

Thor leaving for Norway left the three of them to figure out how to get an entire group of people out of the Soul World at once. Constant trips in and out of the Soul World would take forever and be incredibly taxing, so they had no choice but to bring them all back at once. "We could summon them somehow," Stephen thought aloud, looking to Laurel and Loki. "Is there something that they would all know to come to? The first problem is getting them all together in one place."

"The Asgardian distress signal," Loki realized. "Everyone knows it, and they would come to find someone in need of help. If you projected it from one point in the Soul World, and then sped up everyone's ability to move, you could gather them all in one place."

"Then I encase everyone in a protective sphere and take them all back at once," Laurel finished, sitting up in her chair. "It could work."

"Let's go." Stephen got up, Loki shaking his head. "What are you two waiting for?"

"She needs to rest. Battling Hela, no matter how short of a time it took, was quite taxing. Give her a few moments. There is still a lot of magic to do, a lot of magic that she needs to do. She's the only one who can travel into the Soul World, the only one who can resurrect Heimdall, the only one who can do a lot of things. And while it isn't terribly taxing magic, transporting so many people out of the Soul World will require Asgardian magic, magic that can be deadly to Midgardians," Loki objected, taking Laurel's hand. "Just a few moments, and then you can get started."

Strange went back to the training room where they had locked up the Soul Stone, floating it out of its casing before returning to check on Laurel and Loki, who were already on their way. They would have no idea what was going in inside the Soul World while Laurel was gone, and she couldn't return to the Sanctum with all of the Asgardians in tow, so all they could do was wait. "Good luck," Stephen offered, Laurel nodding to him solemnly.

"I love you." Loki gave her a kiss, stepping away as Laurel prepared to dive back into the stone. "Be careful, love. Please be careful."

"I love you too." She took a deep breath before disappearing in a flash, leaving the two sorcerers alone. At first, they watched the stone intently, wondering if she would emerge with a massive group of people, or if she would come back with them all encased in an odd pocket dimension.

"So," Strange leaned back against the wall, knowing they would probably have a while to wait. "I hear I'm a second-rate Midgardian wizard at best."

Loki rolled his eyes, stepping back from the stone. "I'm not here to talk to you. I'm here to support my wife."

"Your wife was my girlfriend too, and you deserve a warning, though it's far too late. She will work until she drops. She will flex her magic far beyond what she's capable of. I taught her, and I know what she's like, even if it's been years," Strange told him matter-of-factly. "Now that she is a goddess and the master of multiple Infinity Stones, she'll try to extend her reach even more. You have to be careful, or she'll burn herself out. And there's only so many times she can do that before there's no coming back."

Before Loki could reply, Laurel reappeared, looking him in the eye, opening her mouth to say something before falling unconscious on the ground. Both of them rushed over, Loki putting a cold hand to her forehead. "You may be a bit late," he frowned.

"The distress signal… worked," Laurel breathed, trying to sit up but immediately regretting it. "I took them back. They're safe there. Heimdall too. I went and got him while I was gone. Thor… Thor should be on the way with the rest of Asgard. I… gods, Loki… I dragged them all out of there at once…"

"Ssh," he commanded, looking over to his companion. "Can we bring her upstairs to lie down for a while?"

The two sorcerers helped her walk to the stairs, choosing to levitate her up despite her protests and "I'm fine"s. Strange led them to a bedroom off of the main hallway, letting Laurel lie down while he went to fetch something to drink. "You really are a miracle worker," Loki smiled, kissing her forehead as Laurel lay down. "But you've got to stop using Asgardian magic like that. If this is what it does to you to bring a small number of people back… bringing half of the universe back at once will kill you."

"Not half," she yawned. "A little less than half."

"It will still kill you," Loki warned, running a cool hand through her hair. "We'll find another way, love. Don't worry about it now."

She had fallen asleep by the time Strange returned, the two magicians sitting down and keeping her company, talking softly as they waited for her to wake up. They slowly resolved their differences, realizing that they were alike in a lot of ways. While they would both never fully trust each other, they reached a kind of peace, coming to understand that they were far better off on the same team.


	64. Order from Chaos

As Tony, Bruce, and Peter (whenever his aunt would let him stop by) worked on bringing the new Vision to life, melding his consciousness with the Mind Stone, Laurel and Stephen were busy working on bringing people back from within the Soul Stone. Their newest plan was opening a portal between the Soul World and the rest of reality by using the Reality Stone, but they could only keep it open for so long. Even with help from the power of the Time Stone, they could only stretch the portal for so long before it would show signs of collapsing. At this rate, it would take weeks to bring everyone back. People were already being reunited with their loved ones, but it was taking ages, and the longer the Soul Stone had to be opened, the more unstable it became.

Their other problem was that one portal meant that everyone would come through the Sanctum and have to be routed elsewhere. As Laurel kept the portal open, Stephen and Wong would open portals to return people to where they had come from, but it turned the Sanctum into something more like a futuristic train station than a school. Eventually their students would join in, opening portals and routing people back to where they belonged. No matter what, though, there would always be a group waiting in the lobby of the Sanctum, coming downstairs to figure out where they were and where they were going.

Loki proved to be a big help there, since he spoke more intergalactic languages than the rest of them combined, and could help the team figure out where everyone was going. He would meet them at the bottom of the stairs, directing them to one sorcerer or another, telling them where to open a portal to this time. When they started moving a lot of people at once, he decided to duplicate himself, no matter how much Laurel wasn't a fan of it. Stephen and Wong eventually used their magic to duplicate themselves too, opening more portals at the same time in order to move people as fast as they could. Now they were only limited by the space they had in the Sanctum, and not by how many of them there were.

Laurel was working on mastering the properties of the Reality Stone when they weren't using it to prop open the main portal between the Soul World and reality. She had been able to warp Hela's reality back on Asgard, but the stone was far more powerful than that, and she was trying her best to harness its power. However, it was proving difficult, especially after long days of using it to hold open the portal between worlds.

"Four more, and then we're done for the day," Loki announced to the group of sorcerers, Laurel beginning to shut down the portal for the night. When she came downstairs, there was only one person left, stepping through a portal to a snowy planet that she had never heard of. "Ready?"

"Yeah. There's a book I want to grab from the library first, though. Oh, and we've got to swing by the Avengers Facility to pick up the Tesseract from Tony." Tony had finally managed to seal the Tesseract, fully encasing the Space Stone once more, making it safe to handle. They would be returning the stone to the Asgardian vaults that night.

It was their first trip back to Asgard since everyone was brought back, Laurel being hailed as a hero. Thor had been spending the majority of his time there, running his kingdom with Brunnhilde, the last of the Valkyries, by his side. She had formed a new group of Valkyries, and was busy training them to defend Asgard, should they ever need it. Asgard would no longer be a conquering planet, but one that tried to help its neighbors regain their cosmic footing after the devastation of Thanos' snap. Thor had made sure they would not be seen as aggressors again.

The Tesseract was safely stowed in the Asgardian vaults, leaving one less Infinity Stone on Earth. Spreading them out through the cosmos was one of the ways they had decided to maintain the safety of all of the stones, and made it a lot more difficult to gather them all. As soon as they had left the stone in the care of the vault keepers, Laurel and Loki were whisked away to get ready for a dinner in their honor. Thor had prevented the Asgardians from throwing a ball in their honor by issuing a proclamation stating that there was still a lot of work to be done, a lot of people to be returned to their families, so a celebration would be too early. While Asgard had been restored, it wasn't the case around the universe, so it wouldn't be fair to celebrate while families were still broken and grieving.

"Loki," Laurel said that night, looking up from a massive book. "We all missed something. We've been reading about these stones for ages now, and we still missed something big."

"What, love?" He set his book down as Laurel put her glasses back on, turning to him in order to explain what she had just read. "What are you talking about? There are six Infinity Stones."

"We missed something. Thanos missed something. You know how everything seems to be based around the number seven? There are seven days of the week, seven deadly sins, seven classical planets, the seven hills, seven continents, seven heavens, seven hells -"

"Yes, love, what are you getting at?"

"There aren't six Infinity Stones. There are seven. We've been missing one the whole time, a stone that sounds like it could have helped us a lot and saved us a whole lot of trouble," She cracked open the book again, saying, "I had read something somewhere about a seventh one ages ago, when we were studying the stones to take care of Thanos. I'd also read something about a powerful stone when I was studying in the Sanctum with Stephen. Here, listen to this: 'The Reality Stone was used by Anwen Bakian in an attempt to defeat the mad Titan, splitting and creating a seventh stone. This stone pulled power from the other six, melding their powers to govern the one thing that all of the other stones have in common.'"

"And what do all of the stones have in common?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow. "Untamed power? Something to do with the beginning of the universe?"

Laurel continued to read. "'Its power is an all too great, all too present, Reality for every being in the end. The ceasing of the body, the defeat of seemingly ultimate Power, the relinquishing of the Soul to the universe, the freeing of the Mind from physical form. Its power was present at the beginning of Time and at the end, the one thing assured to the universe. No being, no matter where in Space, can escape the power of the seventh stone, just as no being can escape the inevitable. The seventh stone, created from the riches of all of the rest, is Death.'"

"The Death Stone?" Loki leaned closer to read over her shoulder. "The Death Stone," he repeated. "It says here that it helps control a dimension... 'The stone not only controls the dimension, but also holds power over all realms of the dead, over all forms of death. While all of the stones have the potential to wipe out life, the Death Stone has the special capability of having dual power over destruction and creation. The wielder will have power over not only death but over the possibility of life, either extinguishing it or allowing life to flourish.' Laurel, love, it sounds like one of those old Midgardian weapons... what are they called? Nuclear bombs."

"It does," Laurel nodded, looking over to where their cat had hopped up onto a chair. Even now, she was looking out for small signs of motion, which could be deadly if they went unnoticed in battle, but were just annoying when they caught her eye in the rest of her daily life. "And it controls the Dark Dimension, which makes me even more concerned. The Dark Dimension is where all of the worst things in the universe are. It's like the Mirror Dimension, but a lot more dangerous. It makes sense, though, since the Dark Dimension is where you banish people to die. That's where Dormammu is. I've told you about him, about how Stephen fought him in a time loop in the Dark Dimension."

"If there is another Infinity Stone, it needs a guardian. Perhaps there is a reason why the Reality Stone hasn't taken to you. Or you haven't taken to it," Loki suggested, putting his arm around her. Laurel lay her head on his shoulder as he continued to explain his idea. "You are the Goddess of Death. Perhaps that's exactly what the Death Stone needs."

"It's been fine so far, so I think we should focus on finishing our work with the Soul Stone before we go traipsing across the universe to find another Infinity Stone," Laurel reminded him, thinking of how much they still had to do, how a huge portion of the universe still had to come through the Sanctum. "Besides, you know where it's probably hidden. I'm not eager to go there."

"You should be able to master it much faster than the Reality Stone, since it aligns with the magic you have been blessed with. Besides, you won't have to journey into the Dark Dimension alone."

"I can't ask you to come with me," she yawned, setting her book and her glasses aside before draping an arm across his stomach, settling in to his arms. "I can't. No one should have to do that."

"We can go after it later, when all of this business with the Soul Stone is resolved," Loki said, casting her worries aside for the time being. "I think, right now, at least, we should get some sleep."

"Very much agreed."

It took them weeks to get everyone back, even with the Time Stone stretching out time as much as it could be stretched. Stephen would expand the hours to allow more people though, and since many families had vanished entirely, they were able to be transported together. Laurel did her best together groups of people and bring them all though at a time, but there was a limit to how many she could bring with at a time. Even so, they were able to process tens of thousands of people a day, quickly bringing them back to their place in the universe.

When the Soul World had finally been emptied, Laurel and Loki returned the Soul Stone to Vormir, hiding it away under layers of magical disguises and guardianship. It would take ages for anyone to steal the stone again. The two of them left Vormir for Asgard, waving hello to Thor before collapsing into their bed and sleeping for an entire day, utterly exhausted but thankful that they had restored a bit of order to the universe.


	65. The Luckiest Man in the Universe

_"You thought that was the last of me?" Thanos grinned. Laurel was powerless as he held Loki in his grasp, the burning wreckage of Asgard falling to pieces around her. "You really thought you could get rid of me that easily?"_

 _She tried to croak a response, but no sound came as she opened her mouth. There was truly nothing she could do, and no one out there to help them. They were the last ones - the very last ones on a planet that had been razed by the titan. As Asgard burned, the rest of her life was falling apart too. "Please," she felt herself saying, "please, don't kill him. I'll do anything. I can get you one of the stones, just let him live."_

It was the same dream she had been having for a while, the same dream that would wake her up in the middle of the night, only for Laurel to discover that she was next to Loki, that they were alright, and that Thanos was still successfully banished. She would sigh deeply, laying back down and trying to reassure herself that they were safe. But a few days alter, she would have the same dream. It wouldn't terrify her as much as some of them did (and it paled in comparison to the night terrors that Loki had every other night), but it was unnerving, thinking that there was even a possibility of Thanos being out there, waiting to come back for revenge.

Loki rolled over in bed, looking at his wife. She was still asleep, a cascade of red hair covering her eyes. She seemed so normal in her sleep, so average, like any other human tryiong her best to get what little sleep she could manage. Not like the powerful goddess who took on Hela, not like the sorceress and Master of the Mystic Arts who brought back half of the universe, not like the Avenger who defeated Thanos. No, she just looked like Laurel. Like the woman who had sat down next to him in the library and started to read, much to his annoyance. Like the woman he had fallen in love with, like the woman he had married. She had been through so much, most of it caused by him.

He sighed, rolling onto his back as Laurel reached out, snaking an arm over his stomach and moving closer in her sleep. This was what he had wanted from the day he realized how in love with her he truly was. He had suppressed the feeling for so long, fought it off by convincing himself that she would never want him, until she had proved him wrong. It had eaten him up inside, but he hadn't wanted to jeopardize the only friendship that he had in the facility. "Loki?" she mumbled as he began running a hand through her hair. "Loki?"

"Yes, love?"

"Can we not do anything today?"

Today was their first day back on Asgard, their first day not having to worry about the Soul Stone and the billions of people trapped inside it. They were finally able to rest, at least for a little while. Thor was busy putting a celebration together, but they had no official duties to attend to at the moment. "Of course."

"Good." She fell asleep again soon after, Loki coming to see how much of a toll the Soul Stone had taken on her. While the Reality Stone glowed safely in the band of a watch on her nightstand, the Soul Stone had eaten away at her, or so it seemed. She was constantly exhausted from having to use it so much, having to blend Asgardian magic with the magic that, as the Goddess of Death, only she could do. Asgardian magic alone was taxing on a Midgardian, but in combination with having to wield the Soul Stone with nothing to protect her from it, it was crushing.

Laurel woke in the middle of the afternoon, seeing that Loki was still asleep. He too was tired from having to constantly perform magic, conducting people to their respective planets and places in the universe like a railway conductor for weeks on end. It had been the biggest project they had ever worked on, more extensive than any mission, even the counterintelligence runs they had gone on that required undercover work. Even just coming out of Valhalla had taken its toll on him, she could tell. But she was glad to have him back in the world of the living, glad to have him working with her and able to help rule Asgard.

While Thor was the undisputed king, she and Loki were given prominent places in the Asgardian government, as the crown prince and princess. A lot of their duties were ceremonial, but they were Thor's chief advisors, in conjunction with Brunnhilde, who was busy putting together a new Valkyrie training program. While she took her group of Valkyries to train with Nat and Wanda, who had become their other teachers, Laurel and Loki were left to help Thor keep things running. They also had agreed to come back to the Sanctum and help train the new recruits, the biggest class that Stephen had ever had. But for now, they were allowed some time off. Every hero of Asgard and Midgard was taking some time to rest and regroup after turning back the effects of Thanos' reign of terror.

"Love?" Loki asked with a yawn, turning to look at her. "May I ask you something?"

"I would say 'you just did', but that wouldn't be very nice of me," she smiled, giving him a kiss. "Of course you may."

"Now that all of this business with Thanos is over, now that we've restored the universe to what it was, be it chaotic or not," she could tell that he was gearing himself up to say something, even in his still-sleepy state, "do you want to have children? I know we discussed it before, but Thanos had been the more pressing issue."

"Do you want to have kids?" she questioned, both of them sitting up in bed. "I thought the God of Mischief was opposed to having them because of his own upbringing."

"I can do better," he resolved, taking her hands. "I've done better. You've shown me that I can be better than my own father, even if I fail at times. Everyone fails at times. But I know I can do better, that I can be better than Odin was. Love, I've found that Odin and Thanos were the same. Both of them pretended to be benevolent conquerors, taking over a land and saving the people. They ended up massacring almost entire planets. I wasn't… abandoned in that temple."

"What do you mean?" Laurel asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Traditionally, temples and religious places are spared when conquering new land. They are not razed like everything else because of respect for religion and for the people's faith. That's why you hear of people pleading sanctuary in churches," he began to explain.

Laurel's eyes widened as she realized where he was going with this. "You were there to be protected, because you were just a baby. Your brothers were old enough to run and hide if they couldn't defend themselves, but… Odin claimed to have saved you for all those years because he had just tried to conquer Jotunheim and… he stole more than one thing from that temple. I'm so sorry, Loki." She put a hand up to his cheek, feeling how warm he had gotten, trying to suppress his anger at Odin.

"I've come to terms with it. Besides, if all of the horrible things hadn't happened… if I hadn't been kidnapped by a conqueror as a child, I never would have met Thor. Without Thor, I never would have come to meet you. While I may not have enjoyed everything that led up to it, I've become the luckiest man in the universe."

"You're not." There was a lump in her throat that she was desperately trying to clear, making her voice crack a bit as she spoke.

"What, love?"

"You're not the luckiest man in the universe. The luckiest man in the universe would be able to have children if he wanted them, which you so clearly do now." Her voice softened as she admitted, "Even if we wanted to, I can't have children, Loki. Not any more. When… when we lost the first one, they had to do this complicated surgery… basically, I can't have children, Loki. I medically can't."

Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her cheek, whispering, "It's not your fault, love."

"Yes it is," she sniffled, holding onto him for dear life. "If I hadn't overextended my magic on that mission… I made the choice to do that. I… it is my fault."

"If you hadn't done that, many more people would have died. You could have died," he tried to console her. "We can fix this, love. There is enough magic in the universe to do it. I cannot do it myself, but I know someone who can help."

Laurel sat back, shaking her head. "Who knows what magic like that could do? I'm not giving birth to… I don't know, an eight-legged horse or something just because someone promised they could magically fix everything."

"Thor will never let that legend rest," Loki sighed. "It wouldn't be just anyone. There is one person in the universe who has mastered that kind of magic, who I would trust more than anyone to perform the spells properly. She is the Goddess of Motherhood, after all."

"Your mother?"

Loki nodded, telling her that, "My mother, more than anyone else, would be able to do it safely. Just as you can bring people between the worlds of the living and the dead, she has a magic specialty too. She can heal mothers and children, and I think she can help you."

She thought for a moment before assenting. "We can go to Valhalla and let her try, but if it doesn't work…"

"If it doesn't work, we can adopt a few children from Asgard. There are always children that need families. No matter what, I will still love you the same, and I will still be the luckiest man in the universe."

* * *

A.N.: You KNOW I had to mention the Sleipnir legend, bc you KNOW Thor would never let that one rest! Thought we all needed a nice break after all of the chaos that Thanos caused. As always, thanks for the reviews and the messages, everyone!


	66. Healing

The halls of Valhalla were impressive, even after Laurel had lived there for a while. The vaulting ceilings of the palace mirrored those on Asgard, but something was different, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Maybe it was the lack of secret passageways, since Loki had built all of them in the Asgardian palace. Maybe it was the constant twilight of the sun, held up in the sky by magic instead of natural processes. Maybe it was the fact that everyone there was dead, and continued on with their lives, feasting and celebrating everything they could.

Loki led Laurel through the palace, bringing her to his mother's chambers, where Frigga welcomed them warmly. "I have not seen you in a long time, my dears," she beamed, kissing them both on the cheeks and offering them a place to sit. "I was beginning to think the world was finally at peace, what with no one coming into to Valhalla. Your father assured me that you were occupied with restoring balance to the universe."

"We've been rather busy," Laurel told her, explaining that they had been occupied by Thanos, by defeating him and bringing people back from the Soul World. And how they had brought Asgard back, winding time backwards until the effects of Ragnarok had been undone and Hela had been imprisoned in the Mirror Dimension. It was a long story, but she hadn't heard much of it, since she could see into their world, but not into all of it, especially not into the far reaches of the universe where Thanos once dwelled.

"Mother," Loki interjected as Frigga was praising them endlessly, "there is another reason we've come here, more than just to visit." He bit his lip, saying, "Now that Thanos has been defeated and the universe is no longer in danger, now that everything has been returned to the way it was, we want to start a family." He took Laurel's hand, tactfully explaining their problem and asking for her help.

"Oh, Loki," Frigga beamed, her smile softening like only a mother's could, "of course I can help you. I have dreamed of this for so long, when you or your brother would make me a grandmother. Of course. Laurel, dear, come with me." She took Laurel's hand, intent on leading her away and giving Loki some time to visit others in Valhalla.

Loki gave his wife a kiss before she and her mother-in-law disappeared, leaving him to wander the gardens while he waited. It seemed like everyone wanted to stop him to catch up, but all he could do was think of Laurel. How much complicated magic did his mother need to do? Would it be painful? Probably not, since Frigga knew how to take pain away. Would any of it work at all?

Hours later, a servant came to fetch him, announcing that his mother was looking for him. Loki rushed back to the palace, finding Laurel and Frigga talking over cups of tea. "Are you alright, love?" Looking her over, he saw that she was no different from when he had left her, at least not at first glance.

"Yes. Your mother is the most spectacular magical healer I've ever met," she smiled, gesturing for him to sit down next to her. "I was knocked out for all of it, and, well, I feel fine. It'll take a little while to fully heal, but she assures me that I'll be well soon. We can stay for a little longer, but Thor's having that dinner in honor of returning Asgard to its former glory, and he wants us there on time."

They spent as much time as they could in Valhalla, catching Frigga up on everything that had happened - how Laurel had been stuck in the Soul World, how they had defeated Thanos, how she and Stephen Strange had wound time back to fix Ragnarok, how Hela had been defeated again, how the universe had slowly been re-balanced. Odin came to visit them too, asking questions about Asgard, about how Thor was doing, about how the planet was faring under his rule. Loki frowned at the constant questions about his brother, Laurel fielding them instead. Both of them were somewhat relieved when it was time to go, glad to escape Odin's praise of Thor.

Thor himself was waiting for them when they got back to Asgard, eager to hear about how his parents were doing in Valhalla and eager to tell them that a ball was being put together for that night. The others would be coming to visit Asgard in an hour or so, he said, since Heimdall was once again able to open the Bifrost. "Everything's like it used to be," Loki mused, taking Laurel's hand and leading her to their quarters to start getting ready.

Balls and gala dinners were a regular part of life as a princess, as Laurel had found out in Valhalla. She hadn't had much of a chance to experience life on Asgard, at least not until now, but in Valhalla, Odin and Frigga continued the traditions they had kept on Asgard, and they seemed to celebrate everything. Normally they would have brought in victorious warriors, throwing a feast in their honor. But today was about the defeat of thanos, the return of the Asgardians, and a chance for everyone to celebrate.

As Laurel put on her earrings, there was a knock on her door. "Hey. Everybody's here. Some of them are a bit shaken up by traveling through the Bifrost, but they'll be fine." Nat stepped into the room, already dressed up. "You look great."

"Thanks. You too." She turned to smile at her fellow Avenger, confessing that, "I'm almost ready, but I've got to head to the throne room. We're supposed to wear crowns. I don't think I'll ever get used to that."

"As opposed to getting used to being a princess and a goddess on an alien planet, and being married to… Loki?" Nat laughed, walking with her down the hall. "If wearing a crown is the only thing you've got to get used to, you adapt a whole lot faster than the rest of us."

"I try my best," laurel shrugged, stopping outside a set of golden doors. "This is where I leave you. Hey, can you make sure Steve and Bucky are adjusting to this well? Sam, Rhodey, Tony, and Pepper are used to stuff like this. Peter's going to think being on Asgard is incredibly cool. Stephen's a wizard - enough said there. Bruce has traveled to other planets before, and you're good at rolling with stuff like this. But those two… our World War II boys are hardly used to the tech we use on the jets, let alone different planets with gods and goddesses and magic."

Nat nodded, looking down the hall towards where everyone was assembling before their presentation to the rest of Asgard. "I'll take care of our boys. You go put on a crown and show them all who they're dealing with."

As Nat headed down the hall to rejoin the others, Laurel went into the throne room, where Thor and Loki were waiting. "Princess," Loki smiled, looking her up and down."You look lovely." He gave her a kiss, Thor handing her a silver diadem. It was thousands of years old, passed down from generations of Asgardian princes and princesses, kings and queens. And now it sat on the head of a Midgardian woman. The older Asgardian kings would have rioted.

"Thank you," she bowed a bit, watching as the others put their own crowns on. In that moment, they really did look like a proper royal family. For so long, they had looked like warriors, dressed to defend their planets, their universe. But now they were dressed like real royals, preparing for the ceremony that followed. Thor was planning on giving all of the Avengers, everyone who had fought by their sides, the highest honors Asgard could afford.

The three of them joined hands, Thor bowing his head and leading them in a moment of silence for all of the fallen warriors, all of the people now in Valhalla. They had made it a ritual before every ceremony, to remember where they had come from and to remind themselves of the road that they walked, how easy it would be to wind up in Valhalla the next day. To wind up there for good.

When they were finished, the three of them made their way to the top of the ceremonial stairs, descending before calling the Avengers down one by one, laying crowns of laurels on their heads and medals around their necks. The Asgardian nobles began applauding as soon as Thor entered the room and didn't stop until everyone had been honored. The rest of Asgard - those who couldn't get into the ball and those who weren't able to make it to the palace gardens to at least sneak a glimpse of the action, was watching on from the projections put up in the town square. If they had looked out over Asgard, Thor, Loki, and Laurel would have seen everyone dressed in their best, even if they hadn't made it to the ball. All of Asgard dressed up, celebrating even outside of the palace.

Personally, Laurel was glad to have the other Avengers there. Most of the time, everyone would have wanted to meet the king, the prince, and the princess, but now there were plenty of heroes to command the attention of the nobles and those lucky enough to have made it into the ball. Laurel was able to chat with people for a little longer, stopping to hold actual conversations instead of being whisked away by demanding visitors.

It took her a while, but she made her way around the ballroom, dancing with her friends and the Asgardians, smiling at their compliments and accepting their thanks. It seemed like hours later when she found Loki again, handing him a glass of champagne and giving him a peck on the cheek. "It's nearly two in the morning, love," he smiled with tired eyes. "Perhaps we should call it a night and let the others get to their rooms."

"Perhaps we should," she nodded, saying goodnight to Steve, Bucky, and Wanda, who Loki had been talking with. Loki took her hand, the two of them slipping out of the ballroom before they could be caught by anyone else. "You know, we always seem to do this, escape at the end of the ball before Thor can catch us and try to talk our ears off."

"Well, perhaps I like escaping from my boring brother. And perhaps there are better things to do than stand around listening to him," Loki smiled, opening the door for her. As soon as the door to their quarters had clicked shut, he had pressed her against the wall, kissing her deeply. "I've wanted to do this from the moment I saw you in that dress. Something about you dressing up for these balls… Do you want to try and see if my mother's magic worked?" Loki asked in a low voice, moving downwards to kiss her neck. "We do deserve to celebrate… celebrate as we haven't in a while, what with all of that Soul Stone business… and you do look, dare I say delicious?" He smiled mischievously, making Laurel smile too.

"Your mother told me to be careful for a little bit. It was a lot of healing magic, but I've also got a Midgardian body, even if I'm a goddess now. But oh," his cold fingers had started to unbutton the back of her dress. "We could try."

"I'll be gentle," he promised. " _Torturously_ gentle."


	67. Lucky Guess

"Where are you going?" Loki asked, looking up from his book. Laurel had put on her uniform, looking like she was going to go into battle. "I don't remember you having to teach today. Wait, it's Saturday. The Sanctum doesn't have classes on Saturday now, does it? I don't feel like teaching all the time."

She smiled, shaking her head. "I'm going to the Dark Dimension."

"Alone? I don't think so." He set the book aside, snapping his fingers and donning his battle gear. "I know you don't want to drag anyone else into this just yet, but you're going to need backup. Just in case."

"Okay, just in case," Laurel assented, opening a portal and gesturing for him to step through. "Age before beauty."

Loki stepped through the portal, Laurel following him into the darkness. "Now I have no clue where the stone is, but having one of the stones will help guide you to the others. So we're using this." She pointed to the Reality Stone, which had been encased in a necklace. "I don't know how, but it should be able to help us."

"What about the rest of the Dark Dimension?" Loki wondered, looking around and trying to take everything in. They were floating in a world of shadows and lights, undulating things that reached out towards them, only to erupt into showers of light. He could tell that there were beings beyond their comprehension lurking somewhere out there, within the fractured space that glittered beyond them.

Laurel was busy trying to get the Reality Stone to project a map, some sort of guidance for the two of them. "There are things here beyond what we can comprehend, forces as old as time itself. We just have to be careful, and find the stone as fast as we can. It is of the Dark Dimension, but it's also in the Dark Dimension. It's a kind of paradox, just like death is. It's the beginning of one thing and the end of another. I think we're going to have to go that way." She pointed nebulously to their left, Loki nodding and reaching for her hand.

The two of them seemed to float through space, heading in the direction the Reality Stone had pointed them. It was only when they came to a gigantic, glittering face with purple eyes, which seemed to float throughout space just like they were doing. "Who are you, mortals?" it asked, looking them up and down. "Why do you dare come to my realm? Have you come to drive another bargain? Your kind has already bargained for the fate of Earth."

"Dormammu, we need your help," Laurel told him flatly as Loki realized who they were dealing with. This was the Dormammu that had infinitely wounded Stephen Strange, the Dormammu that had tried to take over Midgard to expand his Dark Dimension into the rest of the Multiverse, the Dormammu that was a truly immortal cosmic entity. It looked like they were going to have to take him on, but they didn't have the power of the Time Stone on their hands. They would only get one shot.

"Help?' Dormammu scoffed. "Why would I help someone like you? Oh yes, I know who you are, girl. You were the protege of Stephen Strange, the magician who ensured that I would spare the earth from my conquest of the universe. Of every dimension and every planet. Only delaying the inevitable."

"I am," Laurel confirmed, "but I come to speak for myself, not to speak on his behalf. Not even to bargain for Earth. There's something else I need."

"What is it you seek, child?"

"I've come to find the Death Stone," she said confidently, Loki remaining silent.

"And what do you have to offer in return?"

Laurel bit her lip, saying, "I can give you chaos, embodied in one man. I can give you the man who tormented so many, caused so much pain. The man who so many of my friends fought and nearly died to defeat. I can turn him over to you with one snap of my fingers, and no one would ever miss him. I can give you a man that would feed right into you desire for destruction, for chaos with the mask of order. I can give you a great sacrifice, if you can tell me where the stone is."

Loki reached out to take her hand, growing slightly concerned. What was she proposing? There was no way she would sacrifice him - was there? Dormammu, meanwhile, was thinking this offer over. This was their only shot, and if he chose to kill them right there, they would be the sacrifice, becoming one with the Dark Dimension. "Very well. Deliver him to me, and you will get your wish."

Snapping her fingers, Laurel dragged Thanos out of the Mirror Dimension and into the Dark Dimension, sending him falling into a space where he could hardly land. Dormammu warped the space around him, wrapping Thanos in glittering shards of space before reducing him to nothingness. Personally, Laurel wasn't quite sure what he had done to him, but she hoped that he had been disintegrated like he had disintegrated so many others. Sure, it may not have been the painful death that he deserved, but it removed him from the playing field once and for all. "Where is it?"  
"Who are you to handle the Death Stone?" Dormammu asked, looking to Laurel once again. "A petty magician like you, with a couple of tricks up your sleeve, is nothing close to the master of the Time Stone, let alone the Death Stone. It takes real power to handle it, let alone come close to mastering it."

"I'm the Goddess of Death," Laurel replied confidently. "If anyone can master the use of the Death Stone, it's me."

"Very well, Goddess of Death. Go beyond the Space Bridge over there. It is at the bottom of the gorge, well into the darkness."

"Thank you," she told him, taking loki's hand and taking off for the bridge in the distance.

"You realize you sacrificed Thanos to a destructive megalomaniac bent on consuming all of reality, right?"

"That's why I didn't offer to give him the Reality Stone. I just gave him something to feed his power fantasy for a little while longer." They came to a stop on the bridge, looking down into the rushing black water hundreds of feet below them. "Here we are, I guess."

Loki peered into the depths, proposing, "We could summon it from up here with the Reality Stone. You said they attract each other. I bet we could fish for one by using the other as a lure."

It seemed like a simple solution, but it was too simple. "It's the Death Stone, in the middle of the Dark Dimension, Loki. It can't be that easy. I think it needs a sacrifice. Or one very close to it." He raised an eyebrow, Laurel explaining that, "You don't summon the stone. You can't just try to tempt it. You've got to do something to get it."

"We don't have another Thanos to throw down there."

"I know." She sighed, giving him a kiss and handing over the Reality Stone. "Hold onto that." Before he could say anything, she had climbed onto the railing of the bridge, balancing precariously on the ledge. "I'm pretty sure this will work. If it doesn't, the stone can get you home. I love you, Loki. More than anything."

"Laurel, no!" It was too late. She had jumped, free-falling so far in just a couple of seconds that he lost sight of her.

For Laurel, it felt like she was skydiving, jumping out of a plane on a mission, destined to land deep in the heart of enemy territory. But as the black water rushed closer, she started wondering if it would really work, if she would be able to make it to the stone without crashing into the surface of the water with the same force of hitting the pavement below the Empire State Building. Wind whistling in her ears, she closed her eyes, not wanting to see the water seconds before she hit it. She was sure that she was going to crash, sure that she would become nothing more than jelly after breaking dozens of bones on impact. But suddenly she slowed, coming to a stop right above the water. Something was holding her there, something she couldn't see.

There was a stone, a glowing gem that looked like dark obsidian floating above the water, right in front of her. She reached out, compulsively grabbing it with her bare hands. Somehow she was able to hold it, realizing that it was the Death Stone and she, the Goddess of Death, was probably the only one who could hold it safely and the only one who could truly master it. "Take me back to him," she commanded it, slowly rising in the air, starting to gently float away from the water.

Meanwhile, Loki was desperately staring into the abyss, shining lights as far down as he could. Very slowly, a small dot was rising up to the bridge, getting bigger and bigger as it moved. Laurel. Laurel was coming back. She floated all the way to the top of the bridge, climbing over the ledge with the stone in her hands. "You - how?"

"I'm the goddess of Death," she shrugged, tucking the stone in her pocket and taking his hand as she opened a portal back into their dimension. The two of them stepped through, stopping on their way to Asgard.

Laurel had decided to hide the Reality Stone on Knowhere, magically plucking it from its casing and replacing it with the Death Stone before whisking them back to Asgard. "How did you know that would work?" Loki asked, watching as she pulled her hair out of its ponytail and began to hunt down more casual clothes. She was intent on learning what the Death Stone could do, but there was no need for battle gear while she tinkered with it.

"How did I know what would work?"

He was busy hanging up his coat, but took the time to turn and meet her eye as he asked, "How did you know you could jump from that bridge? How did you know that you'd stop before you hit the water?"

She knew he wouldn't like the answer, but she had to be honest. "It was a really lucky guess."

* * *

A.N.: I'm having a lot of fun researching the Death Stone... apparently it was mentioned in the comics once or twice, but they never really built on it, so I'm taking the concept and running with it. What better stone for the Goddess of Death?


	68. Death and Life

The Death Stone now hung around Laurel's neck almost all of the time, every day. She had long ago mastered some of its powers as the Goddess of Death, but she still had a lot to learn. Loki often found her sitting on their balcony, playing with the stone and trying to see just what it could do. There was a startling lack of literature on the Death Stone, even in the Asgardian libraries. Hours of walking through the shelves had yielded almost nothing. Apparently the Death Stone had been hidden before many of the other Infinity Stones, since it could be used to manipulate the fabric of reality and alter the laws of nature. So she made everything up from scratch, testing its powers and seeing what it was capable of.

One morning, Loki woke to find Laurel standing on the balcony, extending her hands over the garden. "What are you doing, love?" he yawned, opening to door to see her concentrating on her magic. "The sun is hardly up yet. Come back to bed."

"Just a second. Actually, come here. Watch this." Loki joined her, watching as she systematically killed every plant in the vast garden and systematically brought them back, one by one. Then she lowered her hands, killing them all off at once before bringing them back, every withered plant and decaying tree once again blossoming and blooming even more than they had before. "I have to practice that one before everyone else gets up, or they'll think something is majorly wrong."

"I must admit, it is a little unnerving," he shrugged, snaking an arm around her waist as she reduced a tree to ashes, only to bring it back again a second later. "But then again, you are the Goddess of Death. A fact that, in itself, takes a little getting used to. Come on, love. Let's go back to sleep." She followed him inside, closing the massive glass doors and drawing the curtains once again.

Climbing back into bed beside him, Laurel took off her necklace, setting it on the nightstand next to her. The Death Stone was hardly ever out of her reach, since it was an incredibly powerful weapon even in the hands of someone who did not know how to use it. Worse still, it could be disastrous if it wound up in the hands of someone who didn't know how to wield an Infinity Stone at all. She trusted their servants, but power was always tempting. Loki pulled her close, closing his eyes and sighing deeply. "I love you."

"I love you too," she answered dutifully, her thoughts clearly elsewhere.

"Even when you experiment with killing things and bringing them back. Even when it's the cat."

Not bothering to contradict him, she reminded Loki that, "Muffin was dying when I brought him to Valhalla. If anything, I'm making him healthier. Besides, he doesn't seem too bothered by it."

"Hmm, just don't let the servants see you killing things. They'll get the wrong idea for sure," he yawned again. "Be careful, love. Playing with death can be a good thing and a bad thing. I know you mean well, but you're going to terrify the rest of the palace if you kill too many things in front of them. Maybe try making an apple decay and bringing it back, something like that. But there are lines you shouldn't cross in front of everyone else. Test the rest of the stone's powers in private," he advised, Laurel settling in beside him.

"I will," she promised. "That's why I was working on the gardens now, before everyone else got up to see what I was doing. I've found some more on the stone, and I'm going to test more of it later today. But for now, sleep."

"For now, sleep," Loki agreed, glad that he didn't have to let her go any time soon. He hated getting up in the morning, not because of the horrible things he had to face, but because he would have to let her go. It was easier knowing that she would spend most of her time on Asgard or back at the Sanctum teaching, but he never felt like getting out of bed, not when she was there. It was comforting to know, though, that she would be there that night, getting back into bed next to him, reading a chapter or so in whatever book she had brought with before setting the tome aside and falling asleep next to him again.

It was also comforting to know that she would be there when he woke up in the middle of the night or got trapped in the whirlwind of an awful nightmare, reliving the tortures he had gone through or the terrible abandonment that he had suffered. He never knew when they would happen, when he would bolt upright in the middle of the night, trying not to cry out in fear of waking her up. Somehow, though, she always knew, reaching over in her sleep to hold onto him, to remind him what was real. On more rare occasions, he would wake to find her in the middle of a nightmare, stuck in the world that her mind had created. He would gently shake her shoulder until she woke up, holding onto her tightly no matter how much she was crying. Neither of them would ask for details unless they wanted to share them, knowing how horrific their lives had been.

He had slept in the same room for hundreds of years. It had been remodeled and redecorated a lot, but it was still his room, still his quarters from childhood. The same place he would storm off after an argument with Odin, the same place he had whiled away many lonely hours with only stacks of books for company. But now Laurel was there, humming to herself as she went about her day, filling their rooms with so much more light. Waking to find her still curled up with him never failed to make him smile. So much had changed in the palace. So much had changed on Asgard. But having her there was, by far, his favorite change.

When they finally did get up, Loki went to find Thor, who had called him in for a Security Council meeting. Laurel had given Brunnhilde her seat on the Security Council, since she spent most of her days on Earth, teaching in the Sanctum or out on missions with the other Avengers. Today, however, Wong was taking their students to visit Kamar Taj, and the Avengers were spending a quiet day at home, so she was able to practice with the Death Stone all afternoon.

The first thing she found out was that Loki had been right - with the help of the Death Stone, she could cause things to decay and then bring them back. She started with an apple, moving on to potted plants. It would be a convenient power to have when they went on vacation and forgot to water their house plants, she thought. Of course, it could be used for a lot more malevolent ends, but for now, she was happy to be able to revive the plants that she often forgot to water.

With the help of the Death Stone, Laurel found that she was also able to travel between the realms of the living and the dead, and not just between Asgard and Valhalla. She went to visit different versions of the afterlife, seeing some that looked similar to the halls of Valhalla and some that looked completely different. Traveling between Heavens and Hells was one thing, but being able to bring people back from the dead, like she had done with Heimdall, was another. She didn't dare to test it, but she knew that if she wanted to, she could bring back whole armies of people. It would create a multitude of problems though. Tampering with the natural order of things like the Death Stone allowed her to do would mess things up for generations.

One of the most interesting abilities of the Death Stone was the ability to contact the dead from the world of the living. Laurel was able to conjure hologram versions of people in Valhalla, talking to them like she would be able to talk to anyone on Asgard. They were ghosts, but not trapped there, just visiting ghosts. Loki found her talking to two of them when he returned from an agonizingly long Security Council meeting. She didn't hear him come in, busily talking to ghostly images of Odin and Frigga. He waited in the shadows by the door to their quarters, listening in and remaining out of sight.

"He will be delighted," Frigga was smiling, holding her husband's hand. "We are so proud of you two. We have always been proud, but this… this is wonderful news, my dear. All if Asgard will be overjoyed."

"As are we," Odin nodded, beaming at his daughter-in-law. He had had his doubts about Loki marrying a Midgardian, but he saw how happy she made him, and he had allowed it. Laurel had grown on him, becoming a version of the daughter he had always wanted, as opposed to the daughter who had tried to usurp the throne from him. "I must admit, my dear, that… while you two are not royal by blood, you are royal by adoption, by choice. The continuation of the Asgardian throne is critical, no matter if it be by blood or by adoption. Loki is my son, and you are like a daughter. THis is splendid news. We will make the announcement to Valhalla, as Thor will on Asgard. First, however, you must tell Loki."

Loki could stand it no longer, stepping out of the shadows and asking, "Tell Loki what?" All eyes turned to him, Frigga and Odin disappearing in seconds and leaving Laurel to explain everything that was going on. "You can talk to them from here?"

She nodded, coming over to take his hands in her own. "Loki, this isn't the way I wanted you to find out, but… Your mother's magic worked. I'm pregnant. She says it's healthy... It's too early to tell much, but she says it's healthy."

Pulling her into a hug, Loki was quiet for a moment, trying to find the right words. Instead, he just kissed the top of her head, squeaking out a, "Really?"

"Really."

"I love you, Laurel." A million different things were popping into his head, but all he could concentrate on was her, on the miracle of his mother's magic, on the fact they they were really going to have a child.

Giving an audible sigh of relief, Laurel smiled. "I love you too, Loki."

* * *

A.N.: Aww, how cute! Too bad I'm planning some Infinity War-level plot twists...


	69. For Better or for Worse

It had been a while since Laurel had been back to Earth. She'd been busy with her royal duties and with mastering the Death Stone, but she missed the Sanctum and the Avengers Facility, all of her friends there constantly calling to say hello, but not being able to travel to Asgard very often. Now she had a few places to visit, first coming to see the newest class of recruits that Stephen had assembled.

When she got to the Sanctum - or, rather, opened a portal on the Sanctum's doorstep - the class was busy practicing defensive spells, sparring with each other in the main classroom while Stephen and Wong observed. Every so often, they would stop a pair of students, offering advice and standing back to watch them hone their skills. "Hey," she smiled, hugging both of them and turning to watch the pair they had been observing. "Looks like you've got a good class going here. Mind if I teach them a few things?"

"Be our guest," Wong nodded, gesturing for her to take over. Even though the new students had only seen her a few times, they knew how powerful she was. Laurel had become something of a legend among them, the woman who had started out just like them, only to go on to become the temporary Sorcerer Supreme when Stephen was trapped in the Soul World. The same woman who had helped to bring back the billions of disintegrated people stuck in the Soul World, including some of them. And the same woman who had become a goddess and mastered one of the Infinity Stones. So she commanded great respect from all of them, and they were eager to learn from her.

What she thought would be a quick lesson unfolded into stories about the battles they had fought together, the spells they had found the most useful, and eventually, demonstrations of incredibly powerful defensive magic that sent more than one student flying backwards into the crowd. All of them were impressed, intent on mastering the skills Laurel had taught them. As they chattered away about the tales of heroics that she had told, they started practicing, hoping that they would soon be able to throw each other across the room with the help of the Mystic Arts.

It was far later than she had planned on leaving when she took off for the Avengers Facility, finding everyone gathered together after a mission. Bucky was still taking time to lie low in the facility, and Peter was stuck at home working on a history project, but everyone else had gone out to fight, coming home to relax after taking down a cartel that had kidnapped an ambassador.

There were three people that Laurel didn't immediately recognize, introducing themselves as, "Scott, Carol, and Hope. Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, and the Wasp." The dark-haired woman sitting closest to her had gotten up first, shaking her hand and inviting Laurel to sit down and grab a slice of pizza, which she gladly accepted.

"I've heard a bit about you all," Laurel admitted, explaining as she ate. "Steve's been keeping me up-to-date with what's going on around here. I've been stuck in meetings on Asgard, and now I've got this to master." She gestured to the dark pendant that hung around her neck. "Definitely got to keep this one safe."

"And?" Steve goaded, prodding her to share the news that she had told him some weeks before.

"And I haven't been able to do much but sit in meetings and teach at the Sanctum because, well, I'm not going to be able to run around on missions for a while." She put a hand to her stomach, announcing that, "I'm due in a little under six months. I already feel like I'm in the worst shape I've been in in ages, but I certainly won't be able to run around for a long time."

The room erupted into congratulations, everyone smiling and glad to have something to focus on other than rehashing the mission and analyzing how they could have done better. Steve announced that he had already started planning a baby shower. Nat volunteered to start training their child as soon as it could stand, while Sam told her to calm down, since, "They haven't even picked a name yet. Give them a chance to actually have the kid before you start turning it into a mini Black Widow."

"This kid better be as clever as its mom," Bucky mused. "A goddess who brought back half of the universe, mastered an Infinity Stone, can practice all sorts of magic… that's a hell of a lot to live up to."

"Well, it'll have the best group of aunts and uncles that I could possibly ask for," Laurel beamed, looking around the group. "And some of the best godparents."

"I'll throw my hat into the ring for that one," Tony nodded, reaching for another slice of pizza. "Then again, I've already got the spider-kid taking over my lab and following me around. Pepper, what do you think?"

Pepper was quick to answer. "I think it's their choice."

"Thor's naturally the first person in line to step in, should anything happen to Loki and I," Laurel told them all, "since the royal family takes care of each other. But I do think it's important to have other people there too, just in case anything happens on Asgard. Which is why I've asked Steve to be the godfather."

"Naturally," everyone agreed, thinking of how close the two of them had become over the years that they had lived and worked side-by-side. Steve was a wise choice. After all, "He'll never teach them any bad words," Tony laughed, Steve rolling his eyes.

"That was years ago, Tony."

"Still funny."

Laurel sat back in her chair, continuing, "We've also been thinking about a godmother. Again, Brunnhilde, the leader of the Valkyries and one of the highest-ranking people on Asgard outside of the royal family, would be the godmother on Asgard. But here… well, I think we should have someone with powers like the ones we're going to teach our child, someone who understands what a lot fo the things we've been through are like… I don't want it to seem like I'm always trying to make things up to you, but I can think of no one better, Wanda."

Wanda Smiled, saying, "Thank you. I'd love to help, in any way I can."

They all sat up talking, musing about having kids and wondering what Laurel's child would be like, for a while. Nat showed them pictures of Clint's kids, since she had gone to visit them not long before. They were all getting much bigger, having grown up a lot while the Avengers were all busy fighting Thanos. Clint had smartly decided to stay out of it, secretly offering his help when he could get away, but trying his best to keep his family out of danger.

Deep down, Laurel knew that her life - and Loki's life - as she knew it was going to change soon. It had already begun to change. They weren't going to be able to put their lives on the line as much anymore. Just like Clint, they had other people's lives to think about now. Before, they had each other to worry about, of course, but soon they would have someone completely helpless to raise and keep safe. They would have to be a lot more careful.

Laurel got home incredibly late, but found Loki still awake, sitting up in bed with a book. He usually sat up and waited for her, Laurel coming to believe that he wanted her by his side when he fell asleep just in case his unconscious mind decided to throw him back into the fires of the Asgardian dungeons. Even though he had since forced Thor to decree a ban on the kinds of extreme torture that he had been forced to undergo, the memories would never leave him.

Almost as soon as he closed his eyes, he was plagued by the dreams of torture again, waking up before Laurel had fallen asleep at all. He pulled her closer, Laurel rolling over to face him. "I wish I could make you forget all of that, but if I did, I'd have to get rid of all of your memories."

"It's alright," he said, punctuating his reply with a kiss. She could tell that he was still trying to calm himself down, his voice betraying him. "I can deal with the dreams. It helps having you here."

"I know," she sighed, running a hand through his hair and telling him that, "I know, but it's still awful. Even though it's not every night, I can tell that you worry about them. I know you wait to go to sleep so I'm here, just in case. You hate napping unless I'm there, and you hardly sleep when I'm staying on Earth for a little while, if I'm stuck on a mission or out at a conference. I know you're scared to close your eyes because you don't know what you'll see, especially after you've had one of those dreams."

"I'm sorry."

"No." Laurel shook her head, giving him another kiss. "Loki, you can't control them. It's not your fault that you're being forced to relive the evil things they did to you."

"Laurel?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you."

She smiled a bit in the darkness. "I love you too."

"Thank you for not telling anyone about this," he whispered, his voice incredibly low, as if he didn't want anyone to overhear. No one was listening, of course. Not even Heimdall, who Laurel had long ago magically blocked from seeing into their quarters. Surely he had seen and heard many things he didn't want to see or hear back on the original Asgard, and she had decided to block his perception a bit in order to maintain their privacy. "If anyone but you knew… they would certainly look at me differently."

"Hmm, you need to keep up that princely persona," she laughed, immediately apologizing. "Sorry, it's just… I get to see a whole different side of you, a side the rest of the world never gets to see. They don't see the wonderfully kind, gentle prince that I know, the one who has appalling nightmares and dreadful scars, and beautiful blue skin that he hides from everyone else, even his brother. They see you so much differently and… I'm honored that you choose to share all of that with me."

"You make it so much easier," he confessed, closing his eyes as he talked. "You make existing easier, even when it's painful. You aren't scared of me when I'm a blue-skinned, red-eyed monster, or when you catch a glimpse of all of the scars… or when I wake up trying not to scream… You don't take a step back when I take on a different form, and you don't question it. You've folded so much of this into your life as something normal, like no one else would. I don't know how you do it, how you love me more than I love myself, but Laurel, I am so… eternally thankful."

Lately he had been letting her see more of the non-magical Loki. Sometimes he would take the form of a Jotun, sitting around and reading on hot days as a being that radiated cold. She would find not the Loki that she usually saw, but a blue Loki, looking up at her with red eyes when she walked into the room. The first time, he had shifted back immediately, but she insisted that she didn't mind, that he should take on his Jotun form more often, since it would help him to embrace it. She would sit beside him, wrapping herself in a blanket if she got too cold, but still gladly keeping him company.

He had also stopped masking his scars in front of her. Every time she saw them, she felt a twinge of sadness, knowing how much pain he had gone through to get each one of them. He would go to change into his pajamas and she would be reminded of the horrors he had faced in battle and in the dungeons, Laurel always being sure to get up and hug him. If he hesitated, standing in front of the mirror and sadly staring at the lines that lashed his back and ran down the backs of his arms, she would get up, tracing them with her fingers and whispering to him that he was so brave, so strong to have gone through all of that and still come out as a good person. He would inevitably hug her and thank her incessantly, wondering what he had done to deserve someone like her in his life.

She kissed the tip of his nose, making Loki smile. "I love you. I love you completely, no matter what form you take, no matter how many scars you're covered in. I love you for being the Loki that I get to see, even if the world never gets to know how incredible he is."

"Can I tell you something?" he croaked, keeping his eyes shut to avoid meeting hers.

"Hmm?"

"All of those scars, the awful ones I'm covered in…" he hesitated for a second, Laurel holding onto him as he confessed, "They aren't all from battle or.. or from the dungeons. They're not all from the torturers Odin liked so much. Most of them are, but… not all of them."

"I know. I've always known. It's okay to not be alright, Loki. Even if it's just in front of me, it's okay to not be alright. I'll be here to hold your hand through everything," she promised, Loki finally opening his eyes again to see the sincerity reflected in her gaze. "For better or for worse."

He smiled a bit, all of his doubts crushed by the feeling of gratefulness that washed over him. She had forgiven so much, incorporated so many strange things into her life, and now this. No matter what, she would be there. No matter how bad things got, no matter how many paralyzing dreams he had, she would be there, holding his hand and talking until he was able to catch his breath. Was this what love was? Complete acceptance, even of the bad things? Yes, he decided, it must be. There were no real words for how thankful he was, how incredibly grateful he was to have her in his life. So he told her the only thing he could, the words laden with feeling. "I love you."

"I love you too, Loki."


	70. No Rest for the Avengers

"Hey, language!" Tony laughed, Steve sighing and shaking his head, sadly handing over the safety pin he had proudly kept on his shirt for the majority of the baby shower. Tony had been dominating this game, coming up with every alternative for the word "baby" that he could think of. "Hand it over, Rogers. There we go." So far he'd collected the most safety pins, and it looked like he was going to win the game if no one managed to make him slip up.

"Yeah, Steve, you can't use those words," Bruce said, sitting back in his chair. He'd been doing fairly well at the game, but Tony definitely had a clear lead.

"We're gonna catch you soon, Tony," Nat grinned, making sure her own pin was still secure. "Just you wait."

It had been Steve's idea to throw a baby shower in the Avengers Facility, inviting everyone over and setting up a bunch of games. He had even baked a cake. "Enthusiastic about being a godfather, are we?" had been Tony's standard line when he found Steve putting decorations together or getting flour all over the kitchen.

Truth be told, Steve was incredibly excited that he would be a godfather in a couple of months. He had helped Laurel pick out nursery decorations, even coming to visit Asgard a few times to help her. "Who's ready for some cake?" Laurel asked, looking around the group. "I'm craving sugar. Again."

They cut the cake, passing pieces around and just starting to eat before their watches began beeping. An incoming message told them all that there was a mission that couldn't wait. "Really?" Wanda sighed, setting her plate down. "Do we have to go now?"

"Yeah," Tony frowned, putting his plate back on the coffee table. "Unless we want an embassy to get taken over. Let's go, guys. I'll meet you all on the jet in five. We can finish up the party when we get home."

"No rest for the Avengers," Bucky sighed, shaking his head as he got up. He had just recently started to go on missions with the rest of them, starting to re-mold his public image and prove himself as the hero they all already knew him to be. "There better be some of this cake left when we get home."

"We'll do our best to keep it safe," Pepper laughed, kissing Tony goodbye and telling him to be careful.

Of course, Laurel had to stay behind. She and Pepper moved into the control room, where they had set up dozens of monitors and panels to keep in touch with anyone who was on a mission. They were able to monitor the Quinjet in real time, and see where everyone was on a giant map projected on the wall. They could communicate with everyone individually or as a group, and they could project holographic maps into the jet, showing them the exact details of the mission. Theoretically, they could run an entire mission from this room. They could override the controls on the jet to steer from there, keep track of everyone's locations, and launch any kind of drone that they wanted to get clear pictures from above, all before anyone had landed on the ground.

Laurel had been stuck here before, since she was out of commission until further notice. Everyone had, at one point or another, taken their turn in the command center, when they were too sick to go on a mission or when they were recovering from injuries. It helped give them some sense of control, some sense of being able to help their friends, even if they were stuck back at the Avengers Facility while everyone else was out in the middle of the fight.

Pepper handed over a headset, putting on her own and calling in to the jet to let them know that they had support on the ground if they needed it. "Looks like you're going to be able to fly solo once you get inside, but right now we've got guns on the roof of every nearby building," Pepper reported, pulling up a live feed from a nearby bank. "I count five."

"Make that six," Laurel corrected, pulling up an alternative view from a news channel's traffic drone. "Seven, if you count the unit on the ground. The police are getting everything cordoned off and stopping traffic now." She was busy pulling up every live feed she could locate, Pepper working on trying to get into the cameras inside of the building.

"Sending over some schematics now," Pepper announced over their radios, continuing to type quickly. "I'm trying to get into their security systems, but they're decently strong. Nice to see someone actually tries to keep their building secure."

The two of them sat there, guiding the others through the building until they had to take charge of the mission themselves. Eventually, there was no more that Laurel and Pepper could do, instead sitting back in their chairs and waiting for status updates. "Have you two picked a name yet?" Pepper asked, reaching for her piece of cake, which she had set down next to her chair and abandoned while they were working.

"Not yet," Laurel shook her head, admitting that, "We know it's a boy, but that's it. We haven't decided on much… Honestly, we're still kind of in shock that this is all really happening. Frigga had to do a lot of complicated magic to bless us this much. But I know we're not naming him after Odin. Loki would hate that. We're trying to pick an Asgardian name that also translates to a decent, normal nickname on Earth."

Pepper nodded, finishing up her cake before posing her next question. "Do you think you're going to raise him here, or on Asgard? You're between the two so often, I don't know what I would do. Asgard, I guess, since he's going to be an Asgardian."

"Yeah, that's what we're thinking. I mean… I'm a Midgardian, Loki's a Jotun, and we're both Asgardian royalty," Laurel thought aloud, glancing over at the monitors to see that everyone was still inside the building, the mission going well. "We'll have a half-human, half-Jotun Prince of Asgard, so there's no real place for him to fit in. But we're thinking we'll just raise him on Asgard, so he learns what it's like to be a prince, and what'll be expected of him as third in line for the throne. I'll take him back here with me too, of course. We'll teach him magic like Frigga taught Loki, and we'll teach him what we do here when the time is right. It'll be an adventure for sure."

"Well, having a baby is always an adventure. Everything you've been through in the last few years has been an adventure. It's no small thing, marrying someone who lives like our boys do," Pepper mused, taking her headset off so she could get up and grab a drink. "Do you want anything?"

"Orange juice would be great, thanks." As Pepper left for a moment, Laurel rolled her chair up to the monitor in front of her, switching to a view of the cameras inside the building. She could see Nat and Wanda creeping towards the back of the building, where hostages were being held. Tony, Steve, Sam, and Rhodey were already engaging with the people out front, keeping them distracted as Nat and Wanda snuck around and keeping the guns away from the hostages.

Pepper came back with two cups in hand, giving Laurel one as she sat down again, looking to the closest monitor. "Anything going on?"

"Nope, not yet. I'm being kicked like crazy, but that's nothing new." She put a hand to her stomach, wishing her child would calm down for a bit. Well, it was better that he was kicking her now than when she was trying to sleep. "I can't wait to get back to training. Not back to going on missions or anything, but I'm ready to not feel like I swallowed a pumpkin. I wish I could at least go running."

"Hmm, you never realize how much you miss it until you can't go to the gym. The worst few months of my life was when I broke my leg and got stuck in bed. At first I thought it was great - I was twelve and fell off of a horse. It got me out of final exams at school, but then it was summer and everyone else was doing fun things and I was stuck at home on crutches," Pepper recounted, taking a sip of her drink. "It was great when I was just getting out of the hospital and got to skip my exams, but then I had to hear about all of the trips my friends were going on and realized how much I was missing out on."

The two of them sat there talking for a while, finally guiding the rest of the team home and keeping them company while they were on the jet. It was well after dinner time when they were finally able to continue their party and open presents, but everyone still had a great time. Late that night, Laurel finally made it back to Asgard, a box full of presents floating next to her and the remaining cake boxed up and put in a bag that she had tucked under her arm.

Loki was still sitting up, a book in his hands like always. "I swear you're going to read every book in the universe by the time we're old," she smiled, coming over to peck him on the cheek. "Want some cake?"

"Sure. I'm trying to fit in as many real adult books as I can, before I'm stuck reading and re-reading books with twenty words and too many pictures until I can recite them from memory, and before I'm re-telling the same Asgardian bedtime stories until I put myself to sleep," he told her, setting the book aside and coming over to help her unpack.

Meanwhile, Laurel had set the box of cake down and was busy getting a plate out for him. They had a small kitchen in their quarters, and although they hardly used it, it came in handy for late-night snacks and early-morning cups of coffee. "Your sleeves are rolled up," she observed, cutting a large slice of cake and setting it on a plate.

"Yes. And?"

"It's just an observation." She hesitated for a second before cutting herself another slice, putting the leftovers in the fridge, and returning to where he sat. "Take the bigger one. I really shouldn't have any more, but I can at least blame him." Settling into her chair, she clarified that, "What I meant was… I'm proud of you. I know it's not easy." She nodded to the visible scars running up his arms, the ones that branched up over his shoulders and onto his back. "It's not easy not covering them up, even if it's just in front of me."

Loki looked down at his bare forearms, watching them move as he took another bite of cake. "I know the story behind every one of these," he finally sighed. "I can tell you which ones were from combat, which ones came from training with Thor, which ones came from the dungeons, which ones came from… me."

Slowly (the only way she ever seemed to be able to do anything nowadays), Laurel got up, coming to take his hands in her own and kissing both of his arms before saying, "You shouldn't have to think about them. They're all from awful things that happened in the past, things you shouldn't have to ever relive."

"I think I'm going to leave them like this, even when he's born," Loki confided. "Not in front of the rest of the world, but in front of my family… he deserves to know what battles we've been through."

"He deserves to know his father is a brave man," Laurel added, giving him a kiss.


	71. Call the Midwife

It was a quiet afternoon, Laurel sitting with Loki and reading over the latest briefing from that morning. She had gotten up late, but she had been sleeping in more and more over the last few weeks. Loki was beside her, like he always seemed to be now that she was "ready to pop", as Frigga had said the last time they talked. There was no way he would risk going too far, just in case. He had a book in his hands, but had gotten distracted scrolling through the "book of faces", as Thor called it. "What is this obsession with videos of people cooking?" he asked, looking over to where his wife sat, propping her legs up on the coffee table. "And what does it mean that I was 'tagged' in something?"

"Here, let me see your phone. I... Loki." She put a hand to her stomach, glancing over at him and suddenly growing serious. "Loki, call the midwife. Call the doctors. Call whoever, just do it as fast as you can. Go. Hurry up."

The next few minutes were a whirlwind of action. A cadre of doctors arrived, whisking her away to another room, where they had set up all sorts of charts and information relating to "Midgardian physiology, just to be sure that we do everything properly, dear," smiled the lead doctor, an old motherly woman who had checked up on Laurel regularly. "We're going to do this as we do on Asgard, but we all do have to remember you are essentially a Midgardian woman, even if you are a goddess. Don't worry, dear, we've studied this for months. You're in good hands."

"Where's Loki?"

"He's gone to alert His Majesty the King," one of the other doctors told her as she washed her hands and pulled on a pair of gloves. "King Thor must be the first one - well, aside from us - to learn of the birth of a royal baby. And then -"

The door swung open, Loki running back to grab Laurel's hand, hoping he hadn't missed much. "How are you doing, love?"

"Not bad. Not yet, anyway," she sighed, looking to him. "Give me five or ten more minutes and it'll be a whole different story."

Loki kissed her on the forehead, saying, "You're going to do great, love."

Doctors and nurses kept arriving and leaving, whispering among themselves and sharing all sorts of facts about Midgardians, all of the things they had to remember to "not kill her", as one of them had whispered a little too loudly, earning a scowl from Loki and a short string of curses from Laurel, who was clearly in pain by then. They had been studying and preparing for months, but they were understandably nervous. Laurel was the first Midgardian many of them had seen in their lives, and now they were in charge of keeping her alive and delivering a royal baby.

When she looked up next, a crowd had gathered in the room, eagerly expecting the arrival of the newest member of the royal family. Some of them were clearly doctors and nurses, but others looked familiar, like the nobles and members of the Asgardian government that she had regularly seen at balls or at fancy state dinners. She couldn't be sure, but she thought they looked familiar. "Loki, who are all of those people?" she asked through gritted teeth, clutching onto his hand. "Why are they here?"

"They're some of the most important people in Asgard. Besides us," he smiled, trying to keep her distracted. "It's tradition. They're supposed to be present for royal births. It's something about witnessing the continuation of the royal line, something about how this doesn't happen this often. There was a crowd present when my mother had Thor, and Hela too, I suppose. It's just tradition for the royal family to have all of them present."

Laurel pursed her lips, hissing, "It's a shit tradition. Get them out of here. I don't need this many people staring at my - All of you, get out!" She raised her voice, addressing the twittering group of nobles and government officials. "Get out of here! Now! Out! Out!" Slowly, they began to obey, one by one coming to realize that even though their presence there was the custom every royal Asgardian birth had followed for ages, she was still a princess. She outranked them, and they had to listen to her. So they all moved to the hall, a nurse being appointed to keep them updated, just as the nurse was supposed to be keeping Thor abreast of what was happening.

"They're not going to be too happy about that, dear," frowned her doctor, snapping on a new pair of gloves. "There have been a group of them present for every royal birth for millenia. Anyone who's anyone in the government of Asgard has a crowd there when their children are born. It's just the way things happen here."

"I don't care. I'm not too happy about giving birth to something that feels like a bowling ball, but here I am anyway." She took a deep breath, looking back to Loki. "Look what you've done to me," she laughed, trying not to focus on the pain. "At the same time, I can't believe… we're having a baby, Loki."

He nodded, glancing over at the doctors and trying to read their faces. Even though he had to keep Laurel calm and focused no matter what, he still wanted to try to read the doctors' faces, trying to tell how she and the baby were doing. They all looked like they were the normal level of stressed for having to deliver a baby. Everything seemed like it was going well so far, apart from the fact that Laurel was crushing his fingers. "That we are." He ran a hand through her hair, incredibly thankful that she was willing to go through this for him.

"Loki? Oh gods…" She grimaced, cutting off the rest of her sentence. "Loki, this hurts so much." She had tears in her eyes, but Loki worried that she would snap at him if he mentioned it. "Why the hell do people do this?"

"Just concentrate on me, love. And try to remember to breathe," he reminded her, making Laurel frown even more.

"I am breathing," she shot back, rolling her eyes as another wave of pain washed over her. "It's just that I'm kind of… giving birth here. And that's pretty difficult."

"I know, love, but you're doing wonderfully."

"You are," chipped in one of the nurses, coming over to the head of the bed to cast another spell on her. They couldn't take away all of the pain she was in, but they could do a whole lot. "You're doing splendidly. You're actually quite fast at this. It shouldn't be long now."

"It better not be," Laurel spat back, thinking of all of the horror stories she had heard about people being in labor for ten, twelve, even eighteen hours at a time. She had, long ago in Sokovia, worked with a woman who took nearly a day to have her daughter. Needless to say, she had only had one child, not wanting to risk repeating the drawn out pain of being in labor for twenty-something hours. "Loki, why the hell did I… agh."

More than anything, he wished he could do something to help, but all he could practically do was sit there by her side, not budging, no matter what. No matter how long it took, he would be there. "You know, you still look amazing. Amazingly tired and sweaty, but you're still beautiful," he offered. With a mischievous grin, he leaned closer, whispering as quietly as he could, "Almost like the night that got you into this mess. You were glowing a little more then, though. But still, tired and covered in sweat and smeared makeup -" He was interrupted by a nurse coming over to check her vitals. Sitting up again, he put his free hand to her forehead, trying to help cool her down.

"Thanks, I… Here," she said, handing her glasses over. "Can you put these somewhere? I don't really need them for this. Loki… gods, Loki, I need you to distract me." She wanted nothing more than to yell at him, to verbalize the awful pain that she was in, but she also knew that lashing out wouldn't help anything. "Tell me something to keep my mind off of… off of this. Agh, gods! Loki, please, just tell me something." She closed her eyes, taking another deep breath as Loki started to talk.

"You should have seen Thor when I told him it was time," Loki told her, saying the first thing that came to mind. "He can't wait to be a godfather. But he's also got to be the dignificed king that issues some sort of royal proclamation about the new prince. He's already called the others and told them. They'd love to visit, I'm sure, but I don't think we'll want visitors for at least a week. I'm sure you'll want time to rest. We can send them pictures for the time being."

"I'd love some time to rest right now but… that's not going to happen."

"You're almost there, Your Majesty," another nurse interjected, the doctors all chattering away in agreement. "Very nearly there. Good, just like that. Alright, one more - ah, there we go." Laurel finally allowed herself to lay back, hearing the first cry of a "very healthy little boy. Oh, he's got his father's eyes."

Loki was absolutely beaming, kissing his wife and barely being able to find the words that he wanted. "He's… Laurel, he's perfect," he finally managed, holding their child as gently as he could. "He's perfect. Thank you." He couldn't take his eyes off of his son, tears of joy dripping down his cheeks. "Thank you."

An hour later, the three of them were sitting together in a much quieter room. Laurel's doctor, accompanied by a nurse, buzzed in and out of the room every ten minutes or so, but she tried to give them some peace and quiet. Everyone else had been escorted out. Loki sat in wonderous silence, rocking his firstborn son and humming a lullaby that his mother had sung to him as a child. Laurel herself had dozed off, utterly exhausted. There was a soft knock on the door, Thor walking in and coming to congratulate his brother. "He looks like a true prince," Thor whispered, pulling up a chair next to them.

"I know," Loki smiled, looking between his wife and his child. "Aren't they magnificent? Would… would you like to hold him?" He passed the baby over, Thor taking him in his arms and holding him gingerly, like he might break with the slightest movement.

"What have you named him?"

"Fenrir, after the old myths Mother used to read us. Laurel says we can call him Finn, so he has an Asgardian name and a Midgardian one." Loki had to restrain himself from hovering. He trusted Thor more than he trusted almost anyone, but he still hesitated to let go of his child.

Thor nodded, looking down at his nephew. "A strong warrior's name. The two of you have truly been blessed, brother. I'll issue a proclamation soon, to tell all of Asgard about him. They've been waiting since early this afternoon, when word got out that Laurel was in labor. Some of the servants say everyone in town has stopped working for the day so they can be ready to celebrate."

"Thor," came Laurel's voice, "please be quiet."

The two brothers shared a smile before Thor passed his nephew back to Loki with a nod. He would go off to issue a proclamation declaring the day a holiday, in honor of the new royal baby. Loki would spend the rest of the evening with Laurel, who woke up ravenously hungry, reminding him that neither of them had eaten since breakfast. Although the royal family had a nanny to watch over him, their son slept in a crib next to Laurel's bed that night. Loki couldn't bear to tear himself away from her, instead falling asleep in the chair he had pulled over, holding her hand as they both dozed off after an incredibly long day.


	72. Let's Go Save the Universe

Five years later, Laurel was sitting in the vast Asgardian palace's gardens, smiling to herself as three dark-haired little boys ran after each other, one of them deciding to lead the others into the fountain. They were busy splashing each other as Laurel sat in the shade, trying to read, but just watching her family. The three boys had come to dominate her life, but she hadn't regretted it one bit. Raising a family, something she had once thought she would never be able to do, became one of the things she was the proudest of.

Fenrir - Finn, as they called him - was the oldest, a "natural warrior" as Thor called him, and had taken to leading their pack's shenanigans. He had acquired some sort of magical ability from Loki's side of the family, as Thor had discovered one day when he went to look for his nephew but found a wolf pup sitting in his place. This had greatly puzzled all of them, but they soon figured out that he was able to transform himself with no adverse effects. Laurel had recently begun bringing him to Earth with her, letting him watch the classes she taught in the Sanctum sometimes. She would let him play in the pool at the Avengers Facility while she was training with the others, and Loki had started to teach him a little bit about magic.

Jörmungandr (a very Asgardian name that Laurel hadn't loved, so they just called him Jake) had come along a year later, and had the same magical talents as his older brother. Instead of a wolf, he was able to transform himself into a snake at will. He had scared some of the servants, much to Laurel and Loki's amusement. He was four now, and loved following Thor around, asking all sorts of questions about what his uncle did as king. Out of the three of them, he looked the most like Loki, with piercing eyes and a head of thick, dark hair.

Nari, the littlest of the three, had been born a year after Jake (Frigga had joked that having three boys who were all a year apart from each other would make anyone feel like the Goddess of Death, but she loved her grandsons dearly). He hadn't shown any sort of natural magic ability, at least not until Loki had handed him a ball of light and he was able to make it change colors. Since then, Loki had been teaching him a little bit of magic too, and he had already shown that he would be a natural at the Mystic Arts. While he was too young to follow his mother to the Sanctum, Laurel planned on enrolling him there when he was old enough.

For her part, Laurel had been teaching at the Sanctum for a while, only taking time off when she had her kids. She'd gone on missions with the other Avengers, but a lot more of her time was spent in the Sanctum or on Asgard, taking care of her official duties and helping to raise three princes that the public absolutely adored. Loki too would help out at the Sanctum, but he had also put himself in charge of rebuilding the cultural heart of Asgard. He'd started an Asgardian theatre, commissioned the building of a museum, and rebuilt the Asgardian records systems. Most of his time was spent going between the three, ensuring everything ran smoothly. On occasion, he would take the boys to the museum, and they always had great seats for every opening night at the theatre.

"Finn, Jake, watch out for your little brother," Laurel called, the three boys turning to her. "Remember, he's not as fast as you. Don't splash him so much."

"Okay, Mom!" Finn called back, letting his brother splash him instead.

Jake, meanwhile, was pointing to the doors of the palace, where a tall figure was making its way towards them. "Dad! Here comes Dad, look!"

Loki had come from the palace, dropping to his knees as they all jumped out of the fountain and ran over to hug him. "Hi there, boys. Are you driving your mother crazy again?" He looked up at Laurel, who was busy taking pictures of them to send the the others. She waved, Loki coming to sit beside her while the boys raced back to the fountain.

"Agh, you're all wet," she laughed as he tried to hug her.

He snapped his fingers, drying himself off before giving her a kiss. "Not any more." He settled in beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders and watching their children play in the fountain. "All of these meetings are ridiculous. We spent half an hour just talking about what we wanted to talk about later in the meeting. How's your day been, love?"

"I just got home a little while ago. We had a bit of a fiasco at the Sanctum. One of the new recruits didn't aim a spell right and blasted a hole in the ceiling. It would've caused a lot more damage if Stephen hadn't supported the ceiling right away," she sighed, leaning her head on his shoulder. "He managed to throw some sort of spell up there to keep it from collapsing completely, but it took us a while to get everything fixed. Thank goodness for magic."

"Your Majesties." Someone had run over, the boys' nanny trailing in her wake. It took Laurel a second to realize that it was one of the Valkyries. It must have been serious news - the Valkyries were never dispatched unless something was very wrong. Sure enough, she didn't have good news. "Your Majesties, King Thor requests your presence immediately. He says it's an emergency. I'm sorry to interrupt.."

"It's alright," Loki told her, sending her back to the palace with the promise that they would be there momentarily.

Laurel and Loki exchanged a look as soon as she had left. "Go," Laurel told him, getting up and going to tell the boys that they would be back soon. She called them out of the fountain, snapping her fingers to magically dry them off. "You all listen to Nan now," she instructed as their nanny came over. "Dad and I have to go help Uncle Thor. We'll be back in a little while, okay?"

"Okay, Mom," Finn nodded, looking at his clothes and wondering how she had managed to dry himself off so quickly. The boys were mystified by the magic she and Loki could do. They had often fallen asleep with magical auroras dancing above their cribs and their beds, and they loved seeing the spells that their parents could do.

"Nan!" Nari beamed, running up to the nanny, a wonderfully kind old woman who had worked in the palace for ages. "Nan, can we have ice cream?"

"If we hurry, we can have some, but it is going to be too close to dinner time soon," the old woman smiled, picking him up and carrying him on her hip. "Let's go wash up first, boys."

Leaving them in her capable hands, Laurel followed Loki into the palace, locating Thor in the throne room. Thor sat there, deep in thought. Brunnhilde stood by his side, her arms crossed as she came to terms with what they were facing. "We have a new security threat. An old friend just came back onto our radar," Brunnhilde, explained, looking to Thor, who nodded. This was one of his first major tests as king, one of the first things that had put Asgard in danger after it had been restored.

"Thanos has resurfaced," he announced, Laurel unconsciously reaching for Loki's hand. "He's taken over a planet, a little uninhabited place. Word has it that he's trying to raise an army. I don't know how he did it, but he's back." He leaned back on the throne, contemplating what they would do next. "He hasn't made any attempt to attack, and he hasn't threatened Asgard, but he certainly has something planned."

Brunnhilde shook her head, saying, "I have no idea how he could have gotten back here, to our dimension. You banished him, didn't you?"

"I did," Laurel replied, looking between her and Thor. "If he got out of the Dark Dimension… oh gods, Dormammu must have helped him," she realized, remembering that they had left Thanos with the primordial being. She had just assumed he would have sapped Thanos' power and used it as his own, but apparently she had been wrong. "Dormammu promised Stephen that he wouldn't take over our dimension. But he never said anything about not helping Thanos take over. If he's helping Thanos, Thanos is helping him. Thanos would get all the power he wanted, because Dormammu would rule through him. He's controlling him, if not directly, with the promise of power."

"Then we need to make sure the Infinity Stones are secure," Thor resolved, flipping Stormbreaker in his hand as he gave them their orders. "We have two here that we know are secure. The other five… two of them are on Earth. Laurel, go there and warn the others. Make sure the stones are safe, and let the Avengers know to be ready. Loki, you and Brunnhilde split the other stones. Make sure they're all accounted for and well-guarded, even if you have to add extra magic or Valkyries stationed nearby to keep them safe. We cannot - we must not - let him get his hands on even one of the stones. I will hold things together here and quietly prepare the army, should anything happen."

Everyone split up in the hall as soon as they were dismissed, Laurel grabbing Loki's arm before he could head for the Bifrost. "Be careful," she warned. "You should be fine, but… just be careful, okay?"

"You too, love." He leaned in and kissed her quickly, adding, "I love you."

"I love you too. Now let's go save the universe. Again."

* * *

A.N.: Here we go again! You KNOW Thanos wasn't going to give up that easily! Also, I didn't realize the Finn & Jake thing until after I'd come up with their Midgardian names... it wasn't intended to be an Adventure Time reference, but there ya go.


	73. Mount the Defenses

"Stephen, I need you to meet me at the Avengers Facility. It's an emergency." Laurel had left him three messages so far, Strange finally calling her back in a huff, going on about how she had interrupted him in the middle of an important class. "Put Wong in charge for now. Actually, give our students the day off and bring him with you. We've got a problem, and we're going to need both of you. Oh, and bring the Time Stone with you. You can't let it out of your sight from now on. Hell, don't take it off if you can help it."

She could hear him frowning over the phone. "What's going on?"

"I'll tell you when we're all together. Just be careful on your way over. I don't know what's going to happen, but it's not going to be good. Be ready for anything." She hung up before he could ask any more questions. With a sigh, she set her phone aside and started donning her battle gear, just in case Thanos decided to show up while she was on Earth.

Standing in front of the mirror, she took a silent moment to contemplate what was about to happen. Thanos was gearing up for battle of cosmic proportions, and this time, she had a lot more to worry about. Last time she had faced off with him, she had lost Loki, her friends had been in grave danger, and the fate of the universe hung in the balance. This time around, her friends were still in danger, the universe was still in their hands, but she had a lot more to lose.

Before she opened a portal to the Avengers Facility, Laurel stopped to say goodbye to her kids. "Mom and Dad might not be home for a little while. There's a bad guy that we have to help Uncle Thor stop," she explained, kneeling down to talk to the three of them. "Don't worry, we're going to make sure he can't hurt anyone."

"You can hunt down the monsters, Mom," Finn told her, giving her a tight hug. "Hunt them down and slay them all!"

"I'll do my best," she promised, thinking that he was taking after Thor quite a bit. "Now you boys be good for Nan." She hated leaving them, knowing that it could be a while before she saw her boys again. At least they would be safe here on Asgard.

Laurel opened a portal to the Avengers Facility in the hall, stepping through and closing it behind her. She had appeared in the living room, where she had told them all to meet. Stephen and Wong sat on the sofa next to Tony, having just stepped through a portal themselves. Half of them were in battle gear, the other half in whatever clothes they had been wearing when Laurel called. Pepper looked like she had just come from a meeting, Peter dashing in from his aunt's house and taking a seat on the arm of her chair. Bruce still had his lab coat on.

"So what's going on?" Tony asked, leaning forward in his chair. "What's so urgent that I had to drop the project I was working on?"

"Thanos is back." She gave them a moment to process it, explaining that, "Thor's found out he's taken over a small, uninhabited planet and is trying to form an army. We've got to make sure the Infinity Stones are safe, now more than ever."

"This one is safe," Vision smiled, pointing to his forehead.

"As is the Time Stone," Stephen added, the Eye of Agamotto softly glowing, emanating a green light as it hung around his neck. "And you have yours. That's three out of seven. The Space Stone is secure on Asgard, I take it?"

"It is," she confirmed, looking over the group and trying to gauge their reactions. "Our other problem is that we don't know what he's capable of. To get the Death Stone, I had to cast him into the Dark Dimension, thinking Dormammu would have sapped his powers for his own gain, but that's clearly not what happened. I think Dormammu gave him the power to come back. He can't take over this dimension, but Thanos can, and if Thanos is working as an agent of Dormammu -"

"Our reality is in danger," Stephen finished the sentence for her. "Thanos would be given power over this dimension, but he would only be the acting leader. Dormammu would be in charge, controlling him and controlling our dimension." He stood, resolving that, "I need to remind him of our bargain."

Laurel stopped him, grabbing his arm and reminding him that, "We don't know what he's capable of. Right now, I think we need to secure the Stones and start fortifying Earth as best we can. Thor's got Loki and Brunnhilde going across the universe to secure the others, but we've got to make sure you and Vision are safe. If you go off hunting Dormammu down now, you don't know what he'll do. You don't know if he has Thanos waiting for you. This could be a trap - you try to remind him of that bargain you struck years ago, and Thanos plucks the stone from you."

From her armchair, Nat had to agree. "We've got to learn more before we make any moves. We need to find out why he's here. Does he want the stones again? Or does he want to control the dimension through the Mystic Arts? We need to know what his angle is here before we do anything serious."

"And we have to keep the stones safe," Wanda stressed, looking to Vision, who adamantly agreed with her. "We cannot lose even one of them this time."

Steve had been silent for a while, finally saying, "We shouldn't do anything for now. We should prepare ourselves, and be ready to fly out at any minute, but we should let him make the first move. We've also got to alert Wakanda, and all of the other players we've got out there. If we're going to face off with Thanos, we're going to need all the help we can get."

Nat had already pulled her phone out, announcing, "I'm giving Clint a call. He deserves a little more warning this time around. He needs to get his family somewhere safe."

Standing up so he could head to the control room, Tony volunteered to get ahold of T'Challa. Peter was busy texting Shuri, letting her know to expect a call from them soon. Pepper had immediately dialed Scott and Hope, crossing her legs and remaining calm as she outlined the situation over the phone. Everyone had split up to get ahold of their friends, members of the government, or intelligence agencies, alerting them to the impending danger.

Stephen turned to Laurel, warning her that, "If he's after any of the stones, it's going to be yours. It can control life and death. If you can travel to the worlds of the dead, bring ghosts back… He could do a whole lot more. He could hold every being's fate in his hands with that stone. It won't be half of the universe this time - he could kill the entire universe off and let Dormammu rule it."

"What is a king without a kingdom?" Laurel reminded him, proposing that Thanos would have a different use for the Death Stone. "If he has the Death Stone, though… he could rule through fear, turning people into his subjects or killing them. He could force people to convert to followers of Dormammu. He could even hold the dead hostage, prevent them from reaching their afterlives… he would have ultimate power over the living and the dead."

"I know I don't need to tell you to protect that stone with your life," Stephen instructed, looking over to see Tony walking back and forth on the phone. "As I will protect the Time Stone with mine."

"Can I ask you something? How many futures are there where we win this?"

Stephen closed his eyes, focusing on channeling the power of the Time Stone and projecting himself into multiple possible futures at once. He was silent for a few minutes, his eyes finally flashing open and looking to her. "Not very many. Well, there are hardly many that leave all of the people we care about alive."

"Then we have to make the right choices here," Laurel nodded, surveying the others, who were still busy contacting everyone they could think of who could help. "Or, we have to make our choices and hope they're right. I have to get back to Asgard and help them mount their defenses, but I'll be in touch with everyone here. I'll keep my comms unit on, and my phone never leaves my side."

Laurel left them preparing for a potential invasion, every hero on Earth gathering their weapons and getting their defense systems in order. Wakanda was putting up their shields and assembling their armies to be at the ready. Agent Ross was busy alerting the highest levels of the CIA. Nick Fury and Maria Hill launched a chain of contacts, letting governments and warriors know what was happening and telling them to make sure they were ready for anything. She stepped through a portal to Asgard, where she went to track down Thor. "Midgard is preparing," she told him, Thor looking over the city from the balcony of the throne room. "Look at them. The Valkyries are stationing themselves all over. People are packing up the market and hiding in their homes. Asgard was never meant to live in fear."

"We're going to save them," Laurel offered, squeezing her brother-in-law's hand. "We're going to keep them safe. We're going to protect them this time. We -"

She was interrupted by the sound of a trumpet, Thor turning to her to explain what was going on. A dark cloud had come over Asgard, bringing with it the darkness Dormammu was attempting to spread throughout the universe, throughout every dimension. "That's Heimdall's signal. He's here."

The two of them raced into the hall, only to run into Loki and Brunnhilde. "The stones are protected. They will be safe no matter what happens now," Brunnhilde reported, drawing her weapons as they headed for the front steps of the palace. "Here we go."


	74. The Battle of Asgard

The invasion of Asgard was like nothing Laurel had ever experienced before. A lot of the work she did with the Avengers involved infiltrating an area the enemy had already taken. Sure, she'd launched into the middle of battles to defend an area, but this was different. This was something almost out of a movie, she thought, something that shouldn't happen in reality. No one actually appeared in the clouds, coming to wreak havoc and destruction on an entire planet. Right?

Thanos had indeed appeared in the sky, rolling into Asgard on a dark cloud, something that wasn't of this dimension. It glowed with an energy that she knew came from the Dark Dimension, something that wasn't of this world, let alone form the same dimension. Even from the ground, she could see the tell-tale purple fracturing around his eyes, the same marks that Kaecilius had been covered in when Dormammu began working through him. She had been right - Dormammu was controlling him, but Thanos had clearly sought out help from the primordial being. He had a fleet of soldiers with him, all sorts of beings that had fallen into the Dark Dimension that had since become followers of Dormammu. Staring up at the darkening sky, Laurel thought she could make out the outline of Kaecilius himself, who had been sucked into the Dark Dimension when Stephen had banished him and his followers. He now followed Thanos, who had deemed them all in need of leadership and volunteered to take over and lead an army into their dimension.

Thor had donned his battle armor, Stormbreaker in his hand. His eyes seemed to shine with the energy of repressed lightning as he watched the sky growing darker. He was set on defending his home, willing to die before he let Asgard fall to Thanos' rule. Brunnhilde stood beside him, her Valkyries assembling at stations all over the city. She too was ready to die for Asgard, as all of the original Valkyries had done, sacrificing their lives to defend Odin and his reign. Loki had on his battle gear too, shining golden horns adorning his head. His favorite knives were drawn, and he had a look of determination that Laurel had never seen before. Now, he wasn't just going to be defending Asgard. The only things on his mind were three dark-haired little boys, peacefully playing in a safe-room in the palace, blissfully unaware of what was about to happen. Not only was Asgard in danger, but now his family was in danger too.

Glowing spheres of silver glimmered around Laurel's hands, crackling with energy that she was drawing from the Death Stone itself, which hung around her neck. She too knew that they were defending more than just their home now. There was no way they could lose to Thanos, not now. They had to fight until they were all dead, or risk losing so much more than just their lives. The universe was held in the balance, and so was their family.

Almost all of the Asgardian citizens had scurried away into their houses, hiding in closets and basements and praying for their safety. A few of them had assembled in the town square, ready to fight by the sides of the Valkyries and the Asgardian army. While their weapons paled in comparison to those of the trained warriors, Thor did not discourage them from fighting. They could use all of the warriors they could get to defend their home. But most of the Asgardians huddled in the safest rooms of their homes, trying to stay out of the way of the battle. Laurel could understand their fear. They had lost so much, many of them being massacred by Thanos the first time he had hunted down the Asgardian fleet. She couldn't blame them for hiding, for wanting to protect themselves and their families.

Thanos' voice boomed down from the sky, giving them a command that all of Asgard could hear. "We do not wish to harm you. We have come for one thing, and one thing only - the Stone of Death, to be returned to the Dark Dimension. Hand over the stone and Asgard will be spared."

"Never!" Thor answered, raising his axe and causing a bolt of lightning to strike the cloud that Thanos had arrived in. The initial crack was followed by a deep roll of thunder, something ominous, as if it was signalling a difficult battle to come.

Although Thanos fell to the ground, he landed on his feet and replied in a strong voice, fortified by the same kind of magic that had sustained Kaecilius for so long, the magic that had helped him to battle with Stephen, who was a far superior Master of the Mystic Arts. "Very well then. Asgard will burn."

As his armies began to rush them, Brunnhilde signalled the Valkyries, hordes of warriors launching themselves towards Thanos' army. The Asgardian army joined them, running into battle with their weapons raised. Thor sprinted for Thanos right away, more lightning crackling in his hands. Brunnhilde was on his heels as she joined her Valkyries in battle. "Be careful," Loki shot at Laurel before he sprinted into the thick of battle, falling one of Thanos' minions almost immediately.

While the three of them led the Valkyries and the Asgardian army, Laurel had to play defense a little differently. It was her job to protect all of the houses, keeping all of the Asgardian citizens who had sought safety in them out of danger. So she went around, slinking thought the alleyways and jumping between shadows to cast protective spells on each one as the battle raged around her. While most of the houses seemed uninhabited, with everyone inside huddled in inner rooms or down in the basements, she spotted a few people looking out of windows, watching as lightning flashed and intermingled with bolts of colorful energy, their king and their prince fighting to defend the realm.

Laurel would wave to them, smiling through the windows as she cast shimmery protective spells on the houses. The children, who were always in the process of being pulled away from the windows by their parents, would wave back at her, mystified at the sight of their princess doing everything she could to keep them safe. It made their parents feel a little better, even though they still pulled their children back, silently offering looks of thanks to her as she darted from street to street.

Truthfully, Laurel sneaking around the town to protect the Asgardian citizens held two purposes. First, of course, she had to keep them safe from the curses being hurled in battle, from the followers of Dormammu who were trying to cause as much chaos as possible, and from the bodies of Asgardian and enemy warriors alike that were being flung into buildings. But secondly, she had to keep the Death Stone safe. If Thanos and his followers didn't know that she carried it around with her, they wouldn't target her. They would head for the Asgardian vaults instead, where they could easily be cornered and captured. She had to keep the stone from Thanos no matter what.

"Hello, Princess." Kaecilius himself stood before her, having dropped down in a dark alleyway, a block or two away from the battle. The two of them had never actually fought before. But they knew a lot about each other. Laurel had been in the first class of trainees Stephen had taught, just a few months after he had defeated Kaecilius and his disciples. Her class had heard about him endlessly, about the battle for the fate of the universe. Laurel too had heard stories about him when she and Stephen spent time together, recounting their pasts and all of the fights they had been in. For his part, Kaecilius had heard of how she had started out as a trainee, growing into one of the most powerful Masters of the Mystic Arts before becoming an Avenger. He had vaguely followed her story from his banishment into the Dark Dimension, but when Thanos had gathered the Infinity Stones, he had learned more about the powerful girl and how she had managed to help defeat the most powerful being in the universe. "Perhaps you can lead me to the stone, before we decimate your army."

Grey sparks crackled in Laurel's hands as she talked, ready to hurl a spell at him or raise her hands to defend herself should she have to. "Why are you doing this? Stephen made a deal a long time ago, a deal to keep this dimension safe."

"He made a deal with Dormammu, not with Thanos," Kaecilius corrected her, taking another step forward. Purple lights began to dance in his hands, Laurel knowing that he was preparing to hurl a curse at her. "Dormammu cannot help if one of his disciples goes rogue, my dear." He hurled a ball of purple light at her, Laurel blocking it easily with a disk made of grey sparks. "Interesting. I've never seen magic like that before."

Shaking her head, she formed another protective disk with a flick of her wrist. "That's because it's not any magic that you know. It's magic beyond what people can grasp, even you. It isn't my magic at all."

"Asgardian magic cannot help you now. Asgard will fall, as surely as it has fallen before."

Laurel effortlessly blocked another fizzing ball of light, sending it bouncing back towards him. It hit a house, but bounced off of the protective charms she had put on the buildings earlier. "It's not Asgardian magic. It's much older, much more powerful. I can show you, if you want." She sent another of his spells back at him, Kaecilius frowning a bit, but recovering his composure in seconds. "Okay, I'm getting tired of this, you know."

"As am I. But, dear Princess, I'm hardly trying." He smiled like a shark, but Laurel would be the one to have the last laugh. He raised his hands, but he would never be able to do more than send out a few more sparks before she stopped him in his tracks.

"Neither am I." She raised a hand to her throat, touching the small grey stone that hung around her neck. With a deep breath, she extended her hand, Kaecilius inexplicably beginning to choke from halfway down the alley. Slowly, she closed her fist, forcing him to his knees as he began to cough. He collapsed onto his hands, coughing even more.

Looking up at her, he summoned all of the strength that he had left. "You have the stone."

"Yes." She clenched her fist, using the power of the Death Stone to draw all of the life out of him, Kaecilius giving a final cough and falling to the ground. Laurel had pulled the life out of him, sucking the soul from his body. She allowed it to move on, though, thinking that enough souls had had trouble moving on and that she didn't need to add to the problem. Casually walking down the alley, she turned over his body with the tip of her boot, seeing that the purple and black markings of the Cult of Dormammu had faded from his face, but he still had the same fearful expression on his face that he had died with.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, able to see all of the city in her mind. She had covered enough homes to extend the spells to others, like the ripples coming from a stone thrown into a lake. Soon enough, even the homes and buildings on the outskirts of the city would be covered, safe from the battle even though they were in the thick of it. Satisfied that the citizens would be safe as long as they stayed in their homes, she turned out of the alleyway and ran back into the heart of the battle that was raging in the middle of the city, hoping that she could help the others fend off Thanos and his invading army.


	75. A Questionable Victory

Cries of "for Asgard!" rang in Laurel's ears as she raced into the middle of the city, joining the Asgardian army and the Valkyries as they took on Thanos and his followers. She could see Brunnhilde taking down one of them on her own across the town square. Thor had raised his axe, smashing it into the ground and electrocuting the circle of enemies that had surrounded him. Loki was busy duplicating himself, swarming a couple of fighters and making them terribly confused before the real Loki dropped down behind them, falling them one by one.

Laurel was busy fighting off a couple of Thanos' purple-eyed minions when Thor dropped down next to her, easily electrocuting them all and giving her a bit more room to cast a spell that would succeed in taking down a fighter that was sneaking up on Brunnhilde. The two women exchanged a nod, silently acknowledging what had just happened before going back to their individual fights. That happened a lot when they were in the middle of battle, among the Asgardians, among the Avengers, among any group - that small gesture of thanks for saving a life. Of course, they would thank each other later, but for now, the simple acknowledgement of the favor and of the "I've got your back" mentality was enough.

Whirling around to throw a ball of light at one of Thanos' minions, Laurel saw one of her nightmares unfolding in front of her eyes. Thanos himself was standing in the middle of the square, Loki dangling in his fist. It was just like it had been on the _Statesman_ , Thanos in the middle of battle, Loki trying desperately to summon all of his magic to break free. She watched in horror as he dangled there, Thanos hissing something unintelligible to him.

Sparks crackled in her hands, Laurel bolting over and practically incinerating every purple-eyed minion in her way. "Let him go!" She skidded to a halt a few feet away from him, the grey sparks pulsing with energy in her hands. "Let him go, and we'll talk -"

"Laurel, run," Loki choked out, trying to get a glimpse of her. If he was going to die, he wanted her to be safe. But he also wanted to look at her one last time, to have the image of the great love of his life burned into his memory as everything else faded away. Thinking of her had gotten him through so much before, and now, as his magic failed him, he knew it was the only small comfort that he would have.

She didn't move, instead summoning balls of greyish light in her hands, preparing to hurl them at the titan if she could get a clear shot at him. "Oh dear, he loves you," Thanos smiled malevolently, letting Loki keep kicking, trying to break free of his chokehold. "But, child, do you love him enough to give up that stone?"

Without hesitation, Laurel dropped the balls of light, letting them fade away as she unclasped the necklace she wore and extended her hand. "Laurel, no! Let him kill me!" Loki's voice was little more than a hoarse whisper by then, but he felt like he was screaming. "Run! Please, go."

"I can't," she replied calmly, tears streaking down her cheeks as she handed the stone to the titan. Thanos dropped Loki immediately to claim his new prize, the stone that would make him the master over all things, living, dead, and in between. Laurel pulled Loki away, quieting his protests. "We have to get out of here. Come on. Before -"

The stone had already begun dissolving in Thanos' grasp, the illusion fading away as he tried to pluck it from the necklace that held nothing but an ordinary rock. He glared at the two of them, but suddenly started to laugh, his entire demeanor changing almost instantly. "Oh, you will pay for that. You will come crawling to me, begging to give me that stone. Good luck, Princess. I'll see you again soon." He snapped his fingers, disappearing with all of his followers.

As they looked around the battlefield that the town had turned into, Laurel and Loki saw Thanos' minions disappearing with him, even the ones who had been killed dissolving away until there was nothing left besides the few Asgardian warriors who had fallen. A few people here and there had been injured, and the rest were suddenly without any opponents. Loki grabbed her hand as Laurel gradually removed the protective charms from the homes and buildings surrounding the city, the shimmerling domes around them fading away and people coming out to gawk at the remains of the battle.

Thor trotted over from where he had been preparing to take out a group of fighters, all of them suddenly gone. Stormbreaker in his hand, he looked like he was still in the middle of battle. "What have you done? Did you give it to him?!"

"No. He just dropped Loki and left. I don't know what it is, but he's got something more sinister in mind. He definitely wants the Death Stone, though," she reported, reaching out to heal a gash in his shoulder. "He's planning something, especially if he just left like that. He's got something up his sleeve."

"I… I have to … I should…" Loki dropped her hand, heading in to the palace and disappearing as she and Thor stared after him.

"Any idea what that's about?" Thor asked, raising an eyebrow. "He looks like he's about to keel over."

"Maybe." Laurel just shrugged, saying, "Now we can only assume he's heading to Earth, but we should probably regroup here first. Take care of the injured soldiers, fix our equipment… Asgard is certainly his main target. I'm certainly his main target," she corrected. "But whatever he's got planned, it's going to be something big. There's no way he would disappear in the middle of a fight if it wasn't."

Thor agreed, stressing that they should take care of the town before offering their support to those on Midgard. They had good defenses mounted, but Thanos was unpredictable at best. He was capable of doing almost anything to get the stone, and they didn't doubt that he would try something underhanded. As Thor went to consult with Brunnhilde and fill her in on the plan, Laurel went into the palace, looking for Loki. He wasn't in the entryway, but she could hear something in a room off to the side, behind a door she had never bothered to open. Quietly turning the handle, she walked into what looked like a cloakroom to find Loki sitting on the floor, trying his best to keep his sobbing under control.

"I'm sorry," he mouthed as she shut the door and came to sit beside him. "I froze. I could have… I could have stopped him easily." He erupted into a coughing fit, Laurel conjuring a glass of water for him.

"It's not your fault," she whispered, running a hand through his hair as she cast a spell on the door so no one else could hear their conversation or the horrible hiccup-crying and coughing fits that Loki was alternating between. "Anyone would have frozen. He did that to you before, and I know you still dream about it… I don't blame you for freezing."

"It means… I'm weak," he coughed, taking another sip of his drink. "I should have... sorry, I can't..."

She let him lean on her shoulder, trying to get him to catch his breath. "No, you're not weak at all. You're stronger than a whole lot of people. You faced him twice. You sought him out, even after he had killed you - almost killed you - before."

"But I could have frozen him, I could have burned -"

"Ssh. It's alright, Loki. Anyone would have frozen. I don't think any less of you, and neither will Asgard. Every great king falters in battle at times. Take a deep breath. There you go. Now look at me." His red eyes met hers, Laurel leaning in and giving him a kiss. Loki pulled away a second later, starting to cough again. "Do you trust me?"

"Of course," he coughed, trying to catch his breath. "Without question."

Unwinding her arm from his shoulders, she turned to face him a bit more. Very slowly, but deliberately, she lifted her hand up, creating a warm pink glow. He visibly flinched as she approached his throat, holding his breath as her fingers danced over it, healing the bruises and the near-fractures that Thanos had caused. Even though he felt better already, even though he knew it was her and that she would never hurt him, he hardly moved, never taking his eyes off of her hand. "Better?" she finally asked, removing her hand and once again pulling him into her arms.

"Better," he confirmed, hugging her back. They sat like that for a while, Loki finally managing to say, "Thank you. I love you. So much. More than you will ever know."

"I love you too, Loki." She had no idea how long they sat there, simply holding on to each other and trying to calm themselves down. Laurel had been trained to repress her nerves in battle, and now was trying to focus on keeping herself calm. She had been terrified, but the threat was over. She had Loki. he was alright, and Thanos was gone for the time being. Loki, meanwhile, just wanted to calm down enough to catch his breath and be able to face the rest of the palace. When she could feel that his breathing had finally slowed, Laurel kissed his cheek, suggesting that they go see the kids.

He nodded, getting up with her, dusting himself off and taking a deep breath before stepping out into the hall. "Wait," Laurel told him, waving her hand and casting an illusion over the both of them.

"What did you do?" he asked, taking her hand as they set off for the stairs.

"I masked both of us, so we don't look exhausted, and so no one can tell that you were just crying." She smiled at one of the guards, acting like everything was as normal as it could be, considering the battle that had just happened outside. Her smiled faded as a servant ran up to them, looking like she had been crying herself.

The girl burst into tears again as she relayed a message, trying to keep her crying under control so she could get the words out. "Your Majesties, they're gone. We've searched the whole palace, but they're gone. Everyone's been alerted to search the town and the rest of Asgard, but I think he's taken them. Emla too, she's -"

"Who's gone?" Laurel questioned her, trying to get the young girl to slow down, to calm down even a bit and tell her what was going on. "Who are you searching for?"

"The children and their nanny. He's taken them. I'm so sorry, Your Majesties." The rest of her deluge of words were lost as Laurel turned to her husband, both of them now realizing what Thanos had meant when he had told them they would pay for trying to trick him.

Both of them had already pushed aside all of their nerves, every other emotion in exchange for unadulterated rage. Loki felt like yelling, but Laurel had turned cold, far colder than any Frost Giant he had ever encountered. Her rage would have been petrifying if it was directed at him. "Loki," she hissed, squeezing his hand tightly as she outlined their plan, "we have her inform Thor that we're going to hunt Thanos down, and then I go and eviscerate him myself."

"Yes, ma'am," the servant nodded, trembling with fear. As she ran to find Thor, the two of them were already busy opening a portal on the stairs.


	76. Bargain for Their Lives

Laurel was colder than Loki, or at least she seemed to be. The way she glowered at Thanos when they stepped through a portal onto the small planet he had conquered would make anyone's blood run cold, but she wasn't so sure the Titan had any real blood flowing through his veins at all. "Where are our children?" Laurel growled, conjuring a couple of grey glowing orbs of light in her hands, skipping all formal greetings. "Thanos, I swear -"

"What, you will use that stone to end me? You will never find them that way," he laughed from where he sat, the now-empty Infinity Gauntlet on his hand. He beckoned for his mercenaries to come forward, purple-eyed fighters emerging from the shadows to back him up. He was good, but he also knew that Laurel and Loki were incredibly powerful even without the help of an Infinity Stone. "Now, my dear, I want you to bargain for their lives."

"Laurel," Loki hissed in warning as he reached for her hand. He knew that she would try to take him on no matter what, but he had to try. "Don't."

"I know," she mouthed back, not taking her eyes off of Thanos. She had to protect the Death Stone, no matter what it cost her. But she also knew that there wasn't a lot of room to negotiate.

"Well?"

"We can discuss this." Taking a deep breath, Laurel nodded. "We can surely discuss this, what you want and what we can do. But I want to see my boys first, to know you haven't harmed them." _They would have fought. Emla, their nanny, wouldn't have let them go without a fight. And the boys are smart enough to know when they're in danger. Shit, if they tried to transform… if they tried to fight, he would have crushed them._ "I need to see them. We need to see them, to know they're alright."

"Why should I do that?"

"Why should I hand over the stone without any proof? I know that's what you're after, and I know that you think this is the only way you can be sure that I give you the real stone," Laurel said, crossing her arms. "You know that I would only give it up for a few very important things." As she talked, she tried to take the measure of the planet, doing her best to discern what the buildings that lay beyond them were. There were several almost military-style buildings behind him, all of them in terrible states of disrepair and decay. Plenty of Thanos' minions were going in and out of them, slowing down to watch curiously as Laurel and Loki confronted their leader.

Thanos thought for a moment, finally nodding and agreeing that, "You may have your proof, but it will not make you happy, my dear. I'm afraid they put up a bit of a fight."

"Show me my children," she hissed, Loki staying a step behind his wife as her voice grew even more deadly, "or I will disintegrate you where you stand."

With a nod, Thanos led them into the closest building, Laurel's hands crackling with electricity in case she smelt like they were being led into a trap. There was no trap, however, just an old, run-down building that looked like it had once been some sort of school. They followed him down a crumbling brick hallway, finally entering a room with light spilling out from underneath the door. The children's nanny was the first person they saw, Finn and Jake holding onto her tightly. She sheltered them like she was holding the boys down in a tornado, her grip tightly drawing them to her. All of them were crying. "Your Majesties," she sobbed, looking up at Laurel and Loki with fresh tears dripping down her face, "I couldn't save him. His men, they…I'm so sorry. I loved that boy like my own son..."

That's when Laurel realized what she was sheltering the boys from, why she had pivoted to cover their eyes and block their view of the corner of the room, where a small figure had been covered by her cloak. _I can't breathe. Oh gods, Nari. He must have fought. He must have transformed, and not known... not thought Thanos could beat him. Oh gods. I can't breathe. Kill him. Disintegrate him. To hell with your deal. To hell with pretending to be civil. He deserves to die. If not for Nari, if not for Loki, then for all of the pain he's caused._

Loki had had the thought first, his stomach turning as he pivoted and drew his daggers, rushing towards Thanos in a blind range. He had yelled something almost unintelligible, cursing in an archaic language that Laurel wasn't familiar with as he leapt at the man who had killed his youngest child. He wouldn't get very far, though.

A million things ran through Laurel's mind in those few seconds as she saw Loki run for Thanos. _My baby… Kill him. Shit, he's going to kill Loki. Protect the kids. Shit. Holy shit. Don't snap. Don't snap. Whatever you do, you can't snap._ "Loki!" Laurel tried to stop him, but only had time to throw a shield up around the boys and their nanny before Thanos struck.

Loki had lept at Thanos with his daggers drawn, Thanos simply laughing and sending a crackle of purple sparks in Loki's direction. It hit him squarely in the chest, knocking him backwards and propelling him into the wall. His daggers clattered to the ground as Loki fell, giving a small whimper of pain. Her immediate instinct was to run to his side, but she still had to deal with Thanos. She could feel her lip quivering as she was forced to turn away and look Thanos straight in the eye. "You're a monster. There was no reason that he had to… there was no reason you had to kill him."

"I sacrificed my own daughter for one of the Infinity Stones," he reminded her, Laurel trying not to listen to her two crying children and their nanny, who was sobbing as she held onto them. "I do this to help the entire universe. I do this as a mercy. It is painful for a small group of people, but it is a mercy for the universe in the end."

"No one gets to make that kind of decision on behalf of trillions of people across the universe," Laurel spat back, trying her best to push down the voice in the back of her mind that was screaming, weeping for Nari, telling her to go check on Loki, who still hadn't gotten up, trying to quiet everything else and focus on Thanos. "No one gets to decide who lives and who dies without looking at the context, at everything that would change if they made that decision, whether you're taking one life or billions."

Thanos chuckled, shaking his head and telling her, "Your husband is dying. You have two children left, and you need to get off of this planet. But there is no way you can leave with that stone, and you know it. You are going to give it up. You are going to change the lives of billions just to save your family. You are not as objective as you like to believe yourself to be, no matter how much you tout being above this all."

The first sentence hit her hard. Laurel turned to look at where Loki was still lying, knocked out cold. She could see that he was still breathing, but his breathing was shallow, and he had grown even paler than usual. A trickle of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, dripping onto the floor, where it looked like the purple sparks had scorched away a patch of the old linoleum flooring. "Dad?" That was Finn's voice, coming from where their nanny was still holding the boys close, turning them so they could see nothing but a sliver of each other as she held them to her chest. "Is Dad really going to die?"

There was nothing Laurel had to weigh. She had made up her mind already, and she knew that she was a hypocrite, but she also knew that she couldn't lose anyone else. With a great heaviness in her stomach, she slowly unclasped the pendant that had constantly hung around her neck for years. The Death Stone glowed at her touch, Laurel having mastered it ages ago. As she passed it to Thanos, she could feel the lump in her throat, but could do nothing about it. Instead, she reluctantly handed over the stone, hoping beyond hope that she could fix this mess before Thanos did too much more damage.

For his part, Thanos held up his end of the deal. Taking the stone from her with a menacing grin, he left the room, going to gather his followers. Laurel rushed to Loki's side, feeling his fluttering pulse. Even with the incredibly healing powers he possessed, it seemed like he was in real danger. "We have to get him to Asgard," Laurel said, looking to where the others sat. "Emla," she told the older woman, "we have to go. We have to.. We have to take him home. I'll handle… just take Finn and Jake for me, okay? Hold onto them and I can make sure… I can make sure we all get back."

Laurel opened a portal to Asgard, sending Emla and the two boys back first to warn the others and find help. She took Loki and Nari back herself, being sure to close off the portal so no one else could follow them back to Asgard. They arrived in the middle of the front hall of the palace, Laurel telling the first guard she saw to run for help.

A few hours later, Laurel was pacing the hall in front of her and Loki's room. Three of Asgard's best healers were in there with him, doing everything they could to counter the effects of the powerful magic that Thanos had drawn directly from the Dark Dimension. The guard that Laurel had sent for help had come back with a few others, helping bring their crown prince to his chambers and finding the most skilled healers that they could.

Laurel had left Loki in their care as she hunted down Emla and the boys, putting them all to sleep for the time being. She had had to sit with Jake and Finn, explaining that their little brother wouldn't ever be coming back. A group of servants had already been dispatched to start preparing a proper royal funeral, and she had to explain that too. In the end, she had decided to put them into a magical sleep for a while, easing the pain they were in. To be honest, she was glad Loki wasn't awake to deal with it, at least not yet. Thanos had taken so much from him, and when they had finally believed they might be safe, he had struck again.

When she had left them, Laurel went to find Thor. He had already been told a bit about everything that had happened, but Laurel wanted him to hear it from her. He had joined her vigil outside of their rooms for a while, but he ultimately left to consult with Brunnhilde and a few others about the best plan of attack. They needed to figure out what Thanos was planning to do with the Death Stone and head him off before he could massacre half of the universe again - or worse. So she was left alone in the hallway, watching the sun set from the window as she paced back and forth, praying that she wasn't about to lose two of the people she loved the most in one day.


	77. Only Three

It was quite late when the door to their bedroom creaked open, one of the old healers coming out and saying, "Your Majesty, the prince is resting now. His body still has a great ways to heal, but he should be able to survive this. That was incredibly powerful magic, something dark, likely pulled from the Dark Dimension itself. It is the kind of magic that one could only find there."

"Thank you," she nodded, solemnly watching as the other two healers paraded out of the room, both of them looking utterly exhausted. She didn't blame them at all. They had been casting complex spells almost non-stop for the last few hours, and certainly deserved a break. They had only paused for a moment of silence, a silence that fell over all of Asgard for their lost prince. "Thank you all. You've done so much for me, for our family. Thank you."

She watched them go, the group turning down the hall and talking amongst themselves. Silently, she thanked them again before she went into their room. It had been darkened, moonlight spilling in from the wall that was almost entirely made of glass, aside from the door frames that led out onto the balcony. In the moonlight, Loki looked almost peaceful, lying in the middle of the bed with his eyes closed. He wasn't covered in blood any more, and there was no pattern of bruising that made him look like he had been struck by lightning or hit with a burst of energy from the Dark Dimension. He just looked like Loki, as if she had come in late from a mission or from teaching at the Sanctum, finding him already asleep. Some of the color had returned to his cheeks, and his breathing had become less shallow, but Laurel knew that he was still incredibly ill, if "ill" was the right word to describe someone who had been hit with dark magic. _Injured_ , she decided, _injured by dark magic. If you could get injured by regular magic, it only makes sense that you can be injured by dark magic too._

While she had been pacing the hall, she had called Stephen Strange, asking if he knew of any spells that could help. He had personally fought Dormammu and his followers before, so she figured he must know something, even if it was just a little more than she did. He had promised that he and Wong would look into it, but for now, letting the Asgardian healers do their work was probably her best option. Messing around with magic from the Dark Dimension could go disastrously wrong even if you were careful. So she stood back, letting them cast their spells as she watched from the hallway, trying to look in every time one of them went in or left the room for a moment.

The only time she had broken her vigil was at sunset, when the entire palace, and much of Asgard, had gathered for Nari's funeral. Following the proper Asgardian tradition, he had to be buried as soon as possible. So she had woken up Emla and the boys and stood solemnly next to Thor, who did most of the speaking. She just had to stand there, Finn holding one hand and Jake holding the other as they watched the funeral barge burn down, and as Thor gave a speech. The rest of Asgard watched her, the stoic mother of the poor murdered prince and the stoic wife of the crown prince who lay in critical condition back in the palace. She allowed herself to cry, but they were dignified tears this time, not the wracking sobs she had let out on the floor of the hallway. For now, she had to hold herself - and the nation - together.

She had looked back at the palace, wishing that Loki could be there with them. Not to help dry her tears, because she knew that for the rest of her life, she would catch herself crying when she least expected it. She would see something that reminded her of the little boy, hear a child laughing in the square that sounded just like him, pass by a thousand little reminders of the child she had lost, and it would send her into a cascade of tears again. No, she looked back at the palace with a heavy heart because Loki wasn't there to see his son buried. He had missed his mother's funeral, and now he was missing his son's. As she watched the flames dancing over the water, she vowed to hunt Thanos down and kill him herself, even if it meant going to the far reaches of the universe and tangling with the nebulous forces that she knew held the threads of their dimension - and the Dark Dimension - together.

After the funeral she had put Emla and the boys back into their magically-induced sleep, returning to her vigil outside of Loki's room. Dozens of things ran through her mind as she paced back and forth, up and down the hallway, but all she could come back to was Loki. She had already lost so much, and the thought of losing him again made her feel sick to her stomach. Well, even sicker than losing her child already made her feel.

Thor stopped by again a little while after the crowds from the funeral had cleared, offering her a bit to eat. She couldn't manage much, but she was glad that he was there to remind her to at least try to have something, even if she felt like she would throw up even before she took a bite. Steve had called later on, and she had finally given up on walking. She sank to the ground, sitting against the wall and crying to him over the phone. Even then, she tried to be quiet as she narrated everything that had happened, fearing that she would disturb the healers.

Now she stood there, almost petrified, wondering if she should even come near him. Hesitantly, Laurel sat down on the bed next to Loki, starting to run her hand through his hair. "You scared the hell out of me," she whispered, leaning towards him a bit. She was too keyed-up to sleep, but exhaustion washed over her as her body realized that it was in bed, that she had been under extreme stress all day, and that she had just wept yet again. "Don't do that again."

Even though she swore to herself that she would stay awake, Laurel dozed off a little while later, only waking when she felt something shifting next to her. Immediately, she bolted up, realizing that despite her best efforts, she had fallen asleep. It was still dark out, but Loki had just stretched, opening his eyes for the first time since Thanos had nearly killed him. "Oh my gods," Laurel smiled, giving him a gentle kiss. "I thought you were going to die for a while there. I felt it. Gods, Loki, I love you."

"What happened?" he croaked, Laurel conjuring a glass of water for him. Loki sat up to look at her, clearly in pain. "Where are the boys?"

Laurel took his hand, carefully explaining that Thanos had taken them, killed Nari, and forced her to hand over the Death Stone after he had nearly killed Loki. She outlined how she had to give him the stone in exchange for being able to get out of there alive, Loki frowning. "You did what?"

"I had to give it to him. I couldn't lose you again. Or the boys. I had to."

Loki's expression grew colder as he shook his head. "There is always a choice."

"I love you. I couldn't let you die. And he still had our children." He wouldn't let go of any of us without the stone."

"You may have just sacrificed the rest of the universe for our family," Loki told her. He was flattered, but had to at least pretend to disapprove. Deep down, though, he would have given up the universe for her too, without question.

"We can get the stone back. We stopped him once, and now we have more people to help us stop him again."

"Love, is Nari… did he really…" Everything was hitting Loki at once. Since he had been knocked out cold, it seemed like he had lost a bit of time right before everything had happened. He knew that he had run at Thanos, fueled by pure hatred, but the reason why was fuzzy. It scared him to even consider it, but he had to ask.

"Yes. Thor and I had the funeral at sunset. I wish you could have at least been there to see it. You deserve to have been there," she sighed, Loki putting an arm around her and leaning his head on her shoulder. He was quiet for a moment, Laurel feeling the steady dripping of silent tears on her shoulder. "I know," she finally sighed, holding onto him as deep sobs started to wrack his body, every one of them driving him into more pain. He couldn't stop though, the grief and anger still too fresh in his mind. Laurel had gotten a bit of a chance to begin mourning, but Loki had woken up to nothing but raw grief and intense pain.

"He was only three. He didn't have to die."

"I know."

"You told the others?" He couldn't imagine having to sit down with the two other boys, telling them what had happened to their brother. Laurel was always better at delivering bad news, but this... no one should have to do this.

"Yeah. I don't think they really understand that their brother isn't ever coming back. Oh gods, Loki, he's not coming back." Both of them were teary messes by then, not bothering to try to hold themselves together any more. "He's with your parents now… we can visit, but I can't bring him back. I can't upset the universe like that, especially… especially not if Thanos has the Death Stone. He could… he could destroy Valhalla," she thought aloud, crying even harder. "He could destroy the afterlives and the reduce the souls in them to nothing. And I can't bring them back from that."


	78. Rebuilding

"We need to go after him. He killed an Asgardian prince. We have good reason to declare war on him and his entire planet," Laurel said, looking to Thor as she strode around the throne room. He sat back, carefully listening to her plan. "If we declare war, we would have the right to use our army to attack, when we come up with the best plan to take him on. We need Stephen to help us, but we've got him, Wong, and everyone in all three of the Sanctum Sanctorums on our side. We would have a force to be reckoned with, even if he is being backed by Dormammu himself."

Thor crossed his arms, considering her proposal. It was true - they did have a legitimate reason to attack, and they would have a considerable fighting force. But they also had to think about how Thanos was backed by Dormammu, and Dormammu, in turn, was backed by all of the power of the Dark Dimension. They had nothing like the dimensional power that Dormammu had, and they had no clue what he was planning. Rushing right into an attack wouldn't be wise, at least not until they knew what they were facing.

Brunnhilde had vehemently agreed with Laurel. Nari had been her favorite of the young princes, since he had followed her around and taken a great liking to her. She had insisted that she wasn't much of a "kid person", but she'd also made him his own Valkyrie uniform and let him follow their group to the training fields and watch as they practiced. Laurel would often come back to Asgard to see a tiny head of dark hair following in her wake, even when she was bringing a report to Thor or just sitting in Security Council meetings.

"Once we consult with Stephen Strange," Thor determined, Laurel turning to face him as she stopped her pacing, "and once we form a plan that ensures the best outcome possible, one in which we get the Death Stone back and likely defeat Thanos and Dormammu in one go, then we will declare war on Thanos and his order. I have already publicly condemned him for the brutal murder of an Asgardian prince."

"Thank you," Laurel nodded, thinking that she would call Stephen as soon as she could to set up a time to either come to the Sanctum or bring him to Asgard so they could talk. Steve had filled him and the others in on what had happened, and they were all preparing to do whatever they could to help her, to help Asgard, and to protect the fate of the universe and their dimension. No one quite knew what Thanos was planning, but they knew it wouldn't be anything good.

"For now, though, we must continue rebuilding," Thor resolved, watching Laurel start up her pacing again. She was restless, wanting to have something concrete to do to avenge what Thanos had done. No matter what, she could never replace what she and Loki had lost, but stopping Thanos for good would likely make her feel at least a little better, like there was a little bit more justice in the world. "We must continue to rebuild Asgard, and we all need time to process what's happened."

Later in the day, Laurel returned to her quarters to find Loki walking around as best he could. "Come to stare at me?" he asked, holding onto the back of a chair. "I've been trying to walk around a bit more, but… well, I won't be running any marathons soon," he smiled, Laurel coming over to put an arm around him for support.

"You shouldn't be trying to circle our quarters so much," she advised, slowly walking with him until they could sit down on the sofa together. Loki's face had grown paler as he tried to ignore the pain he was in, finally letting Laurel force him to sit down. "You'll overextend yourself and make everything worse. Just listen to the doctors."

"I'm sick of being stuck in bed, just getting up to walk into our bathroom and then go back to bed," he complained, Laurel shaking her head. "I want to be able to help."

"We don't know what he really did to you. I know he hit you with some sort of Dark Dimension magic, and that it's taking a lot for you to heal, even though you're a god, so it had to be something incredibly powerful. But I really don't know how it's going to affect you… I think he was just trying to knock you off your feet and got a bit overzealous, but I don't know. The healers… the healers were surprised you were in as good of a condition as you were, even though you were half dead when I brought you back. They did everything they could. I've done everything I can… you just have to give it time."

Loki nodded, knowing that she had done what she could without putting herself in danger. He had woken up the night before to hear her whispering old Asgardian incantations, warm strands of softly glowing golden light snaking over him as she went through all of the healing magic she could without overextending her abilities. Even while he was asleep, she avoided his neck, knowing that he hated being reminded of Thanos and the _Statesman._ He'd smiled a bit to himself, closing his eyes and going back to sleep as she kept working, totally unaware that he had ever k=noticed anything. "We don't have much time, love. If Thanos has brought the Death Stone back to Dormammu, we may have no time left at all."

"I've thought of that," she told him, "but Dormammu was guarding the Death Stone for centuries. He could have used it if he wanted to. I don't think Thanos needs the stone so he can return it to the Dark Dimension. I think he's going to try to kill Dormammu and become the new master of the entire dimension. The Death Stone would give him just as much power to kill as an entire Infinity Gauntlet. Gods forbid he tries assembling all seven stones. He's just waiting for the right time to strike, when Dormammu thinks he's got Thanos under his control. I doubt Dormammu even knows that Thanos has the stone."

This was something that had crossed Loki's mind as he sat there in bed the first day, almost unable to move without his entire body being in searing pain. It really did feel like he had been struck by lightning, but by a bolt much more powerful than anything possible on Midgard. It was full of a much darker energy, one pulled directly from the Dark Dimension itself. If Thanos was able to harness power like that, even without the Death Stone, he worried about what the titan was capable of armed with one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. Their only hope was trying to take him on with the help of the other Infinity Stones, the only things that could match the power of what he now held.

Laurel outlined the entire conversation she and Brunnhilde had had with Thor, and the conversation she had with Stephen Strange over the phone. She spelled out their plan, Loki listening attentively and nodding along. "You may still need help," he offered, "even with the aid of the Time Stone. An actual army, perhaps even an army that can perform ancient magic."

"Thor's pledged the Asgardian army. We're declaring war, as soon as we're prepared to launch ourselves into a real fight," she said, waving away his concerns. She knew well enough not to approach Thanos lightly - she couldn't risk bringing a knife to a gun fight, let alone bringing a knife to an inter-dimensional showdown between a group of Masters of the Mystic Arts and a power-crazed titan. "Look, we can talk about this more later, but I've got to get ready for the ceremonial state dinner. Thor's insisted on having a delegation from Vanaheim come to visit. Actually, they were scheduled visit before… before all of this, but he's never cancelled the meeting, so here I am getting ready for a dinner when all I want to do is work on hunting Thanos down. Maybe it'll help take my mind off of things."

"For your sake, I hope so, love." Loki watched her start getting ready, crossing back and forth in their quarters as she went to find different things. She would go change, spend a while in the bathroom doing her makeup, and then come out to tell him something. Then she disappeared to find her shoes, crossing their quarters again as she hunted down a specific piece of jewelry, only to come back again because she had left her hairbrush in the wrong place. Passing by as she pinned her earrings on, she reminded him that he needed to eat, no matter how much he didn't feel like it. He liked watching her gradually start looking more like a princess, talking to her as she put herself together.

The state dinner took hours, Laurel smiling and chatting with the diplomats sent from Vanaheim while they were casually brokering an alliance with Asgard. As things fell out, the two groups of royalty and military chiefs agreed to help each other, offering assistance should need be. They wouldn't hop right into the middle of the fray if one or the other went to battle, but they would have support, something that Odin had long refused.

Laurel hated having to be the one who sat there and smiled, offering platitudes and making small talk to help win the delegation over. Thor had a similar duty, joking and personally befriending all of the delegates, but also ensuring they stayed relatively on topic. Brunnhilde focused them on strategy and exact terms of their agreements. Meanwhile, Laurel was in charge of making them see Asgard in the best light possible, especially as Thor changed so many of Odin's policies.

It was late by the time she made it back to their quarters, dropping her shoes by the door and starting to pull her hair down. As she made her way into their bedroom, she had to stop and smile. Loki had fallen asleep, Finn curled up on one side of him and Jake on the other. It looked like he had been reading them a book of old Asgardian myths, a book that sat open on the nightstand next to the three of them. The boys hadn't moved by the time she had finished getting ready for bed, so she settled in beside them, scooting Jake over a bit so she could fit in with all of them.

"Love?" Loki whispered, feeling her settle in and reach over to him, like always.

She took his hand, their arms stretched over their remaining sons and holding them close. "Yes?"

"I had to explain… the boys came in and asked," he paused as Finn stirred a bit, rolling over in his sleep. "They're still a bit young to fully understand, but I had to tell them that Nari is never coming back, that their little group of three is now a group of two." They had done something similar a few times, trying to get the boys to understand. A four and five year-old, though, weren't the most adept at grappling with concepts like life and death yet, so they had to explain it as simply as possible over and over again. "They seem to understand that he's with my parents, in a place they cannot go yet. Love… if Thanos has the Death Stone, and he kills Dormammu to take over the Dark Dimension, what are the chances that he tries to destroy the various afterlives?"

She looked over at him in the dark, sighing, "I don't know. But we're going to stop him before he has a chance."

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A.N.: Sorry if I'm not updating as consistently - work is crazy, and I'm busy studying for the LSAT (t-minus 2 months), but I'm using what little free time I have to get some writing done. Thank you all for sticking with me and for all of your reviews and messages!


	79. The First Attack

Five people sat around a boardroom table, discussing their plan to attack Thanos and pull the Death Stone from his grasp. They had been stuck in the same meeting room all day, only taking a break for lunch and to show their guest around the palace and gardens of Asgard. Other than their brief break, they had spent the day huddled over maps and diagrams, drawing out all of the possible options and crossing them off one-by-one as they came up with reasons why their plans wouldn't work.

Thor thought it would be best to offer a direct military attack, using the sheer might of the Asgardian army to overwhelm Thanos and his warriors. They would use the Mystic Arts to create illusions of a force much more formidable than the one they had, and to counter the power that Thanos was drawing from the Dark Dimension itself. Overwhelming their enemy was the only viable choice.

Brunnhilde had agreed, offering the help of the Valkyries and saying that they needed to split their forces in order to surround Thanos and his followers, cornering them and forcing them to give up the stone as they were picked off one at a time. She would lead one force, Thor leading the other, until Thanos was forced to surrender or be killed. Laurel and Loki would lead a group of Masters of the Mystic Arts and Asgardian magicians to augment both forces.

Loki sat next to his wife, even though there was no way he would be in fighting shape in time to take on Thanos. But he still had a seat at the table. After all, his son had been killed, and he was a member of the Asgardian Security Council. He thought they should arrive with a small, well-trained group of fighters and a larger group of magicians. After all, Thanos and Dormammu couldn't be overwhelmed by force, he had argued. They would have to be outsmarted, out-magicked, and out-foxed. It wasn't going to be sheer force or muscle that won their battle - it would be brains over brawn for sure. He adamantly believed that they would be better off - and would lose fewer people - if they only brought a small fighting force, or if they recruited a large enough group of people who were both skilled fighters and well-versed in magic and the Mystic Arts.

Stephen Strange, their guest on Asgard, had, to the surprise of Thor and Laurel, agreed with Loki. He was the only one who had fought both Thanos and Dormammu before, and he agreed that they would both be a threat, no matter what. Trying to turn them against each other might help, but ultimately, they would have to take both of them down or risk falling into a situation like this again. Gathering as many magicians as they could would be crucial. They would have to overwhelm Thanos not with physical force but with magical force.

Personally, Laurel was getting tired of their squabbling. No matter what they did, they would have to go in with a force of magicians and Masters of the Mystic Arts, the best people they could get to take Thanos on. But they were also going to need a well-trained force of fighters to keep him and his followers distracted. Thor had been arguing the point for far too long when she sighed, interrupting his rant with a, "Stephen's the only one who's fought Thanos and Dormammu. If he thinks we're going to need to lead this with the Mystic Arts, then I think we should lead with the Mystic Arts. We've been at this for hours now, and we're running in circles. There's no reason to keep arguing when we know that there's no way to do this with brute force alone. The real question is whether or not we should get all of the Avengers involved."

"This should be between Asgard and its allies," Thor determined, looking over the group. "An Asgardian prince was killed in the fight for the stone, so we should be the ones to lead the fight to get it back. Putting the Avengers in danger is needless."

"We could use all of the backup we can get," Stephen offered, reaching for his drink. "Even if they can't do magic or aren't trained in the Mystic Arts, we could use them on the ground."

"We have the Valkyries and the Asgardian army for that, though," Laurel countered, trying to appease Thor even a bit. "If something goes wrong, they're going to need a group of heroes to defend Earth. Stephen's volunteered to help, as the Sorcerer Supreme, and I think we should let him. But we shouldn't drag everyone into our fight." She took a deep breath, setting her adamance aside and telling him that, "It's really up to you, but Thanos murdered my son." Loki reached out and took her hand, squeezing it in a show of unity and support. "Thanos murdered our son, and we want to help lead this. Now I know Loki's not strong enough for a fight that big, but Stephen and I can lead a force of magicians while you and Brunnhilde lead a group of fighters to take Thanos on. We'll overwhelm him, not just by force, but with our minds too. We've got to throw all of our resources into this fight, but we've got to be smart about it."

They took another break for dinner, finally coming up with a concrete plan late in the evening. Loki went back to their rooms to read Finn and Jake a story or two before bed, Laurel getting Stephen settled in one of the guest rooms before stopping to talk to Thor in the hall. "What I said earlier, about Loki not being in any shape to fight… you know he's going to try something. So when we head off to Titan tomorrow, we need someone to keep an eye on him. I'd knock him out myself, but I don't think we should be magically messing with him any more than we need to right now."

"I wish we could bring him with," Thor confessed, leaning against the wall. This was all taking a great toll on him too. Laurel and Loki had lost a son, but he had lost his nephew and was the first person to have to comfort a nation and assure them that they would rebuild and come back stronger than ever. Laurel knew that he was a good person, even if he didn't make good choices all of the time, and that all of this was hurting him too. "No matter how much I hate saying it, I wish we could have his help."

"Me too, but he can stay here with the kids. They're going to be worried. The last time we went into battle… they're going to be scared, and I think it would help to have Loki here with them," she yawned, turning to see a servant passing by. She gave the servant a smile, wishing him a good night before turning back to Thor. "If worst comes to worst, he could help mount defenses here, should anything unexpected happen. I've got to get to sleep if we're going to leave early in the morning. Try to get some sleep yourself. I'm going to need you in fighting shape tomorrow," she smiled, giving him a hug. "Somehow, I've got a feeling that everything's going to work out."

When she got back to their quarters, Laurel found the kids already asleep in bed, Loki sitting up and reading in their living room. He had his back to her, and was completely blue, making the surrounding air a bit colder. When he heard the door open, he snapped back into his normal visage, but as soon as he saw that it was just her, he began fading back to blue again. A pair of red eyes met hers as she grabbed a blanket, wrapping it around her shoulders before she sat down next to him. "I'm glad that you do that," he admitted, kissing her forehead as she leaned on his shoulder. "It makes me feel like less of a monster."

Admissions like this were rare, she knew. Laurel smiled to herself as she replied, "You're not a monster at all. You never were. Like this, you're still the same Loki. Just blue. And a little more chilly."

"That's doubtful," Loki murmured as he continued to read. "But I know the Jotuns aren't the monsters we were made to believe they are. It's difficult to change hundreds of years of thinking, but I'm trying."

"I know, and that's what counts."

Loki closed his book, setting it aside and wrapping his arms around her. "I'm also trying to find us some help with Thanos. I'm going to try to get some people enlisted tomorrow."

"We're telling the rest of the Avengers to stay on Midgard in case anything happens, remember?" Laurel told him, trying to suppress a yawn. "I wouldn't tempt them. They'd want to help, I'm sure, but we don't want to risk it."

"Hmm, I won't," he promised. "You should say goodbye to the kids before you go, by the way. And wake me up. Just in case." Laurel could read the hesitation in his voice, the desperate "please don't leave" that went unstated but not quite unsaid.

"Of course," she promised, holding him as tightly as she dared without getting too cold. Loki did his best to keep her warm when he himself was as cold as ice, but it still felt like she was hugging a snowman. "Loki… if anything goes wrong, I love you. I love you no matter what, but… you know what I mean."

"I know. I love you too." The two of them sat in silence for a while, finally getting up to go to bed without another word. Both of them lay awake for an hour or so before falling into a restless sleep, knowing that Laurel was walking into the middle of one of the most dangerous things she had ever faced in just a few hours.

It was an ungodly hour when Laurel's alarm went off. She rolled over in bed, shaking Loki's shoulder and kissing him goodbye before going to get ready and saying goodbye to the kids. She would meet Stephen in the hall, the two of them going down to the Asgardian army's training compound together. From there, they would transport a small group of fighters and magicians with them to Titan, facing off with Thanos hopefully once and for all.

It was almost silent as Laurel and Stephen opened the portal, nodding to Thor and Brunnhilde, who would be following them into the void seconds later. Solemnly, the took each other's hands, stepping through the portal together and winding up right in front of the mad titan.

Thanos just laughed, looking down at Laurel from where he stood. "So, she returns. The angry little goddess. And this time she brought me a wizard instead of that little trickster. Oh, this should be fun."


	80. The Final Battle

A.N.: My loves, I've officially started LSAT studying season, so I'll try to update as consistently as I can, but it's going to take away some of my (already limited) free time. (For those of you outside the SS, the LSAT is the test you take to show law schools your skills before you apply, and it can be incredibly difficult and confusing, so you've got to start studying way in advance). Also, I realized that the Guardians have taken over Titan earlier int he story but I'd have to do a lot of correcting things to fix it so Thanos still has Titan... so enjoy a good plot hole that I might exploit later in flashback chapters. Anyway, enjoy!

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"We want to talk to you, and Loki's… Loki's still rather indisposed," she said, choosing her words carefully. As she spoke, Stephen was busy bringing the others in, carefully masking the squadron of fighters and magicians so they were practically invisible, blending in with the sky behind them as they moved. To all but a very well-trained eye, there was just a spinning portal behind the two of them. The plan was to have the invisible fighting force take care of Thanos' followers while they tried to get Thanos to turn the power of the Death Stone on Dormammu, forcing them into a fight that they could ultimately pounce on and control. "We know you want the stone to control as much as you can.

Thanos leaned forward, his curiosity piqued as she outlined her revelation - well, the revelation that they had so carefully planned out back on Asgard. He said nothing, but his expression begged her to continue. So continue she did, speaking a little louder than normal so she could cover up the sound of the invisible army that surrounded them.

"I know you're planning on turning it on Dormammu. I would too. But look at yourself. Look in a mirror. Do you know why your eyes are turning purple, why your face is slowly becoming a constellation of crystals? It's because of what he's doing. He's controlling you, even if you don't know it. He's going to let you keep going, as long as you play by his rules. But the instant you try to take over the Dark Dimension, he's going to turn up that control until you hand the stone back over to him. He's doing everything he can to protect it, which means he wants the stone back," she explained, looking to Stephen. "Stephen's seen it before. He's seen how Dormammu ate away at Kaecilius and his men until they were fully under his influence. You convinced Loki to try to take over Earth with just a little bit of giading. Imagine what he can do with a titan who's completely under his control."

"Why are you bringing me this revelation?" Thanos finally asked, inherently skeptical of the woman who had fought him more than once. Now she seemed to be bringing helpful news, news that he knew better than to trust outright. "You stand to benefit, but at the cost of helping the man who has caused you so much pain?"

"I've seen what he can do, the destruction he can sweep over an entire dimension in an instant," Stephen spoke up, trying not to smile to himself as he saw the faint shimmering of their backup moving through the area, carefully incapacitating Thanos' followers.

Laurel sighed dramatically, ramping up the emotion in her voice. "You murdered my baby in cold blood, and I will never forgive you for that. But as soon as Dormammu has you under his full control, he will use you to take over our entire dimension and wipe everyone out. I would much rather," she paused, taking a deep breath and staring into his eyes, "I would much rather have you in control of the Dark Dimension, because I know you would be content. Years ago, you killed off half of our dimension in an attempt at mercy. I know you would still be merciful enough to let some of this dimension live. Dormammu is planning on wiping everything out. The more chaos he creates, the better. He's a being made from chaos, and he desperately wants it to bleed into this dimension too."

"You may have created a lot of chaos, but it was in an attempt to instill more order," Stephen added, his cloak billowing behind him even though there was no wind on the planet. In that moment, Laurel could tell that he was bargaining with Thanos like he had bargained with Dormammu. "He wants to use you to circumvent the bargain he made a long time ago, a bargain that prevents him from returning to this dimension. If he manages it, he would create an almost infinite amount of chaos, chaos that can propel him further, until he takes the entire universe and nothing is left."

Laurel bit her lip, broaching the subject they had agreed on in their day-long Security Council meeting. It was designed to put Thanos on edge, but still win him over. "What we're saying is… we need your help to take him on before it's too late. I don't like you, and I don't trust you. But I would rather see you take over the Dark Dimension than see Dormammu use you to take over this one. We need your help, but we also want to help you."

Thanos leaned back in his chair, thinking it all over. "This stone could kill him?"

"Not exactly. Dormammu is a kind of being made of living energy, with apocalyptic power. The Death Stone can't kill him, since he's not alive, not in the sense of the word that we're familiar with," Laurel explained, confidently standing her ground. "But if you use it against him, you could disperse that energy to the point that he can't re-form himself any more, like scattering ashes in the wind."

"It has to be done soon," Stephen told him. "Every day that passes means he's melded himself with your mind even more. Soon you'll have no free will at all. It could be weeks, it could be days. We don't know the kind of timeline he's working with here, but we do know he wants to take over as much of the Multiverse as possible, and as quickly as possible."

It was at this point that Thanos made his decision. Even if they were wrong, eliminating the threat of Dormammu wouldn't harm him. If they were right, he could take over the Dark Dimension. If they were wrong, he would still end up taking it over. It really was a win-win. "Open the portal," he commanded, Stephen and Laurel stepping back to open a dimensional rift, bringing the barrier between the Dark Dimension and their own down to nothing. The three of them stepped through, removing Thanos from the area while Thor and Brunnhilde led their forces to take out his remaining followers.

"You again? I thought we resolved your bargains." came a voice, Dormammu's glittering face sneering at Stephen and Laurel. His expression lightened a bit as he saw Thanos, who bowed formally. "What have you brought me, my son?"

"They came to bargain for their lives," Thanos replied. "I know you have bargained with them before. But this time, I've brought them to honor you. They tell me you stand for chaos and they stand for order, though that seems rather unlikely."

"I'm glad you see them for what they are."

Thanos shook his head, saying, "I see you for what you are. I know what you are trying to do now. What you are trying to do through me, and I refuse to be used as your pawn and then thrown away." He raised his hand, hitting Dormammu with a bolt of pure power that shattered his image with such a force that it sent all of them flying. The shards of energy flew past them, Laurel throwing a shield in front of her and Stephen as they tumbled through the air.

Luckily, they had anticipated the blast. In fact, they had been counting on it. As they tumbled backwards, Stephen slowed time down, allowing Laurel enough time to pluck the Death Stone from Thanos' hand and clasp it back around her neck. She reached out, continuing the blast that had first fractured the image of Dormammu. It propelled Thanos further away, buying Stephen more time.

The wizard was busy filing through the possible futures, picking one out and determining how to send Thanos there. "Dive left!" he called, his eyes closed as Laurel reacted instinctively, narrowly missing a shard of space that would have impaled her otherwise. "Now right." He had seen how to create the only future in which they killed Thanos that day, and it was going to prove to be relatively easy.

Laurel summoned one of the massive shards of pure energy, hurling it at Thanos, who was still rolling though space, propelled by the blast that she had continued around him. She fractured the shard, splitting it off to create a hailstorm of sharp implements that impaled him several times over. It all only took a few seconds of quick spellwork, but it stretched out into what seemed like hours as Stephen levitated in place, zooming through possible futures until he was sure this was their best option. He snapped his fingers, entangling Thanos in strands of glowing green light and sending him into a future where he was instantly obliterated by the shards of spacetime that Laurel had thrown at him. "What are those?" Laurel asked, steadying Stephen as he dropped back to the ground.

"Time, in its purest form," he answered, the Time Stone glowing around his neck. "It's very difficult to do, very taxing on the universe. I have to draw energy from the universe itself and rip apart the fabric of spacetime to be able to pull him into a definite future, and even then, it isn't guaranteed to work, not in the slightest."

"You mean that could have failed spectacularly?" She turned away from him, opening a portal back to Asgard while he worked on opening one that would take him back to the Sanctum.

"Possibly. I'll be seeing you at the UN meeting in a few days, right?"

"I'll be there," she promised, saying goodbye before he stepped through his portal and vanished. Surveying the Dark Dimension one more time, she was finally at ease. They had managed to vanquish not only Thanos but Dormammu too. While he wasn't truly gone for good, Dormammu would be out of commission for a very long time.

They had left the portal open on Titan, Stephen enchanting it so that only those who had come from Asgard could go back there. It would fizzle out on its own, but no one else would be allowed to pass through it and invade Asgard, so Laurel could leave it alone. Instead, she stepped through the portal and right into the palace, making sure to seal the portal and sever the connection between Asgard and the Dark DImension before anything else could try to get through.

What Laurel walked into on Asgard was nothing like the peace and quiet she had hoped for. Instead, the palace had been thrown into chaos. Groups of servants were stopped dead in the halls, whispering and looking at her as she passed. No one dared to speak directly to her or meet her eye, which was odd. They would almost always smile at her and say hello, even if they were busy. Even stranger, the guards were all at their posts in full armor, like they were preparing for a potential invasion. Well, there had been a chance when she had left with Stephen and Thor, but there was no need to be ready to launch themselves into a fight now.

Finally, Laurel ran into one of Thor's messengers, who looked like he was looking at the realization of his greatest fear when she stopped him. "Is something going on? Everyone's acting very strangely around here, even though we just got back from one of the most important missions we've been on in decades."

"Ma'am," he bit his lip, trying his best to hold her gaze, "it's His Majesty the Crown Prince. The King… I'm sorry, ma'am."

"Loki?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"What's happened?" she pressed.

"I -"

"Laurel," Brunnhilde interrupted the two of them, striding over much to the relief of the poor messenger, "Thor and I need to speak with you immediately."


	81. Arrest

Brunnhilde led her into the throne room, where Thor, still in his battle armor, sat pensively, looking like he was trying to make a difficult decision. "Laurel, I know this is not the best time, after such a tremendous victory, but we are going to conduct a criminal tribunal tomorrow. Loki… Loki, in our absence, attempted to contact the Frost Giants, asking for their aid in defeating Thanos in return for the Casket of Ancient Winters, among other things, including a grab at the throne."

Honestly, Laurel was at a loss for words. At least he had tried to help, but this fed right into everyone's perception of him as a power-hungry, scheming trickster. If he had truly offered the Jotuns a way to the Asgardian throne, he would surely wind up ruling Asgard. As the rightful King of Jotunheim, he would be installed as the King of Asgard, since there were already two Kings of Jotunheim. Besides, he was next in line for the Asgardian throne anyway, so they would install him there without question."No harm has come of it," Laurel carefully reasoned, "right? No harm has been done, and he was acting in the best interest of Asgard and of the entire dimension, really. The Frost Giants are skilled magicians themselves. They would have been helpful, had we needed extra help on Titan and in the Dark Dimension."

"It's still trying to negotiate a deal with a hostile government without the express permission of the Security Council or any other part of the government," Thor told her with a sigh. "I truly hate having to do this, but he does need to be punished. He knew he had to at least go through official channels to negotiate anything, especially with a people who have been our enemies for millenia."

"What is he facing?" Laurel asked, trying to keep a level head. She looked to Brunnhilde, who had shifted a bit, leaning further away from her, like she wanted to escape. Certainly she didn't want to be the one to deliver the bad news, but Thor gave her no choice. "What do Asgardian laws say about it?"

Instead of shying away, though, Brunnhilde was the first to answer her. "Banishment. Especially considering his, ah, less than stellar record. Simply put, it's treason. If he wasn't a member of the royal family, he would probably be executed."

"And where is he?" she pressed, sounding more and more like she was interrogating them for doing something wrong. "What have you done with him?"

Again, Brunnhilde had to answer for a rather pained-looking Thor, who was deep in thought. He was already weighing the consequences of banishing his brother, including the loss of one of his greatest allies. If he banished Loki, he would certainly lose Laurel too. Not physically, but she would be lost to him in spirit after something like that, even though Loki truly had tried to put Asgard in danger. Again. "He's in the dungeons, awaiting a formal criminal tribunal tomorrow."

Laurel turned on her heel and left, the door to the throne room swinging behind her as she headed for the dungeons. The guards stepped aside as she walked in, knowing that, if they got in her way, they would forcibly be moved. No one dared to stop her, even though most people weren't allowed to just waltz into the dungeons and demand to see a prisoner. After all, she was a princess. "Where is he?" She had pulled aside one of the guards, scaring him half to death with her question.

"Down the hall in the last cell on the left, Your Majesty," he managed, Laurel letting go of him and striding off, leaving the guard slightly in shock as he returned to his post.

She found Loki sitting on the floor of his cell, trying to juggle a ball of green light. He vanished it as soon as he saw her, practically jogging up to the glass. "They told me what happened," she said, putting her hand up to the glass to meet his. "It's not fair. You were just trying to help them, to help us. I know you were. But Thor sees it differently."

"What did they tell you?" Loki asked, his voice low as a guard passed by on patrol. "Just so I know. What was their side of the story?"

It broke her heart to see the sadness in his eyes, the stress and the constant fear of being back in the dungeons apparent on his face. Just being there reminded him of the tortures he had faced in those rooms, even if Thor would never sign off on them like Odin had. He had avoided the dungeons since she had been on Asgard, and she knew that he had stayed far away from them before then too. "They told me that they caught you trying to broker a deal with the Frost Giants, even though they're enemies of Asgard."

"Enemies of Asgard?" he scoffed, clearly offended. "They are our enemies because Asgard tried to conquer the nine realms and they fought back! That's… that's how I got here, and those are the lies they teach Asgardian children so they fear the Jotuns and keep up this hostility. That's how they control the people, through fear and carefully spun lies!"

"Loki," Laurel quieted him, trying to provide some sort of comfort, "I know. I believe you. But that's not what we have to worry about right now. We've got to think about how you're going on trial tomorrow, and how they could banish you if we can't convince them that you had to try to broker a deal with the Jotuns, how you had to do it without their approval because you know they never would have approved."

Loki shook his head sadly, the two of them sitting down on opposite sides of the glass and settling in for a discussion. "I've already been tried, sentenced, and executed. Who's going to be the judge of all of this? Thor's already made his decision, especially since I was the one who got him banished in the past. He's going to throw me down to Midgard, in some little town in the middle of nowhere, to live out the rest of a miserable existence."

"Well I'm going to fight for you even if he's already made up his mind." She bit her lip, leaning close to the glass to whisper, "If it comes down to it, I could manipulate his thoughts so he has to see it that way. I could warp them just enough that he thinks the idea is all his own. I've done it to people before, and your brother is no more clever than they were."

"No. He would eventually come to see what you've done, and banish you too, to some distant realm where I could never see you. I know you'll already risk a lot trying to visit me in my banishment, because there's no way Thor will be able to prevent you from finding me. Even if they disguise me and force me to live the rest of my life in a cave." He smiled a bit at the last part, more of a sad smile than a reaction to a joke. "You would be risking too much. Our children need a mother, especially if they're most certainly about to lose their father."

Laurel sighed, wishing she could phase through the glass and hug him. It must be lonely behind the glass, trapped with nothing but your thoughts. Well, at least he wasn't completely alone this time. "Okay. I'm going to try to make him see reason, though."

They sat talking for a while before Laurel stood up, stretching and saying that she ought to head to bed so she could get some sleep before the early tribunal in the morning. Suddenly Loki looked panicked, begging her not to leave. The small degree of calm that he had regained with her there had vanished, replaced by poorly-masked fear. "Stay. Please. I…" he lowered his voice, explaining that, "After my mother would leave, I would be dragged out and brought downstairs to their torture rooms. Please don't go."

"Loki, Thor's not like that. He's not going to have you tortured or anything."

"When we were on Sakaar, he stuck one of these disks on me… They were called obedience disks, and they would electrocute you if you moved," Loki confided, looking genuinely distressed at the thought. It was a side of Sakaar that Laurel hadn't seen when she went to visit the Grandmaster, but it made sense - he had to keep people under his control somehow. "Electrocution is torture. He knows well enough that I've been through it before." He paused, biting his lip as he added, "He laughed, Laurel. He electrocuted me, and he laughed. Don't think he wouldn't do it again. Look at the man who raised him. Look at how he likes to think himself superior, even if he seems to mask it. You've seen that side of him in battle. I grew up with it."

Even though she still greatly doubted that Thor would give the command to hurt his brother, Laurel acquiesced, thinking that this would at least offer him some sort of comfort. While she sent a hologram of herself upstairs to say goodnight to the boys, the real Laurel snapped her fingers, forming a cot out of softly glowing tendrils of light. Loki moved his bed to the glass wall that separated them, getting as close to her as it would allow.

The guards said nothing as she lay down, rolling onto her side to face him. She gave an encouraging half-smile, promising that she would do everything she could to get Thor to let him out. Loki simply put his fingers up to the glass, Laurel putting hers up to meet him. "I have almost no powers in here," he sighed. "They built this cell for me after I nearly destroyed the last one. It's resistant to a whole lot of magic."

"Well you won't have to worry about that for long," Laurel promised. "I'm going to get you out of here."

"If only it was that easy."

Both of them hardly slept, thinking about the trial that would happen in the morning. They would close their eyes, only to inevitably open them again, whisper a few words of comfort to each other, and then try to go back to sleep. Every half hour or so, they would be woken by the loud steps of the guard who walked the halls at night on patrol. The restless sleep they managed to get wasn't enough, but they were still roused fairly early and told to prepare themselves for what could easily become one of the most well-publicized trials in Asgardian history.

As Laurel stood up, smoothing the wrinkles in her clothes, she felt a sense of finality. Something was going to change, no matter what happened that morning. If they won, there would be a decent chance that they might reach a sense of peace with the Jotuns. Loki would likely be placed in charge of Asgardian-Jotun relations, and they might actually be able to visit the place where he could have grown up, had Odin not tried to conquer Jotunheim and started a war. If they lost, however, her life would be upended. Loki would be banished, and she would be left to raise their children and wonder about him for the next couple thousand years.

Reluctantly they said their goodbyes to each other. The next time they would see each other, they would be in the throne room, pleading their case and hoping beyond hope that Thor had a change of heart.


	82. Trial and Execution

"Crown Prince Loki Odinson, of Asgard, stands accused of treasonous acts of consorting with officials of an enemy government in an attempt to seize the throne of Asgard," read a court page, stepping back into the shadows of the room and starting to take notes as Loki was brought forward and seated. Laurel had been allowed to sit next to him, holding his hand as best she could through the chains he had been bound in back in the dungeon. Guards sat on either side of them, waiting, should they dare to make a move.

Brunnhilde stepped forward, glancing back at the two of them reluctantly. She had been forced to present the evidence against Loki, and now had to state the case for Asgard. "Our prince was interrupted by a messenger in the middle of a discussion with the Jotuns, happening through a portal that he had opened in his quarters. This discussion focused on offering certain relics to the Jotuns, which would invariably lead to an attempt to steal the throne of Asgard while it was relatively unprotected."

Thor had crossed his arms and was listening intently, but showed no signs of betraying his thoughts. Laurel debated whether or not it would be worth it to try to read his mind. On one hand, she would know how well things were going in an instant. On the other, she might tip him off. It would surely be worth the risk, especially if she treaded lightly.

 _He's tried to grab the throne before. But dealing with the Jotuns? Again? He looks like he's going to try to stab me again. No surprise there. Laurel too. She looks - what is it that the Midgardians say? Pissed off?_

"The Casket of Ancient Winters was recovered by Odin hundreds of years ago, in the same expedition that brought His Majesty the Prince here to Asgard," Brunnhilde outlined, looking to Thor and the various members of the Security Council that sat nearby. Of course, Laurel and Loki would not be able to offer their opinions, but Korg, Meik, Brunnhilde, and a select number of old members of the Council were going to retire and talk with Thor after the show of the trial. "It has been kept safely here ever since, and was recovered after the rebuilding of Asgard. If it was given to the Jotuns, we would lose an incredibly powerful weapon, putting it right into the hands of our enemies."

 _The Casket can't destroy Asgard, but it would make it easier for the Jotuns if they were to invade. And they clearly would, if given the chance. They want revenge for thousands of years of war, war that they've been losing the entire time. They would kill all of us if they wanted. There's a reason they tell stories about the cruelty of Jotunheim._

"Returning the Casket of Ancient Winters to Jotunheim would make them powerful enough to challenge Asgard," Brunnhilde continued. "If they challenged Asgard, Loki stands to benefit. The throne of Jotunheim is shared by two brothers, and, as the rightful King of Jotunheim, Loki would be granted the throne of Asgard in order to keep these two kings on the throne in Jotunheim. He's next in line for the throne of Asgard, and would be a natural replacement that the Jotuns would agree on. This was clearly a grab for the throne disguised as a mission to help save Asgard, no matter how disjointed and desperate it seems."

 _She's right. If they had taken over while Laurel and I were fighting Thanos and his army, Loki would have gotten the throne. Hel, he would have given Asgard up to them in return for being able to rule over it. His brothers rule Jotunheim. What's to stop him from ruling Asgard? He'd want to rule Asgard more than Jotunheim anyway. He could have taken over and prevented us from coming back at all. No, he would want Laurel to come back. He would have known that she wouldn't be happy about it. But would she be enough to stop him? What if he really was doing this to help her? He didn't know how well we had it handled. He could have done this because he thought we truly were in need of as much magical help as we could get. But why not go to the Sanctum for thelp if he thought we needed it?_

It was a fairly concise case. After all, Asgardian criminal tribunals were meant to go quickly and end in a public execution, as they had back in Odin's day. Thor had changed a lot of things, but this was also the first tribunal he had ever presided over, so Laurel expected him to follow in his father's footsteps a fair amount here.

Laurel squeezed Loki's hand, preparing herself to start countering the arguments that Brunnhilde was being forced to make on behalf of Asgard. She let go of him, taking over the floor of their makeshift courtroom. "You've claimed that Loki was offering the Casket of Ancient Winters to the Jotuns, who would come to Asgard and try to grab the throne, and that Loki would end up on the throne because of his interesting position as a, well, as technically the person who should be ruling Jotunheim and as second in line for the throne of Asgard. There's a whole lot wrong in that one sentence," she began, looking back to Loki, who gave her an encouraging half-smile.

"It is true that he was talking with the Jotuns," Laurel outlined, acknowledging the fact that yes, he had technically done something wrong. "The Jotuns are known for a specific brand of magic that is rather rare here on Asgard, and on Midgard, for that matter. Loki knew that, and he knew what we were facing with Thanos and Dormammu. We had taken a small group of magicians with us, but he believed we were in need of more help. It makes sense, since we were such a small force going up against two terribly powerful entities. Just like us, he didn't know exactly what we would be walking into when we met Thanos, or if we could successfully turn him against Dormammu. He also knew that we've been beaten by Thanos. More than once." Pausing for effect, Laurel met Thor's eye, emphasizing a point that she didn't need to state aloud - that they had been beaten by Thanos before, and he had taken some of the most precious things in their lives. It also gave her the opportunity to read his thoughts again and check in to see how she was doing.

 _She's right. Thanos did beat us before, badly enough that it took five years to undo all of his damage. And we all have to live with Nari's loss. Nari, he was such a sweet boy. He did not deserve any of that._

"The Casket of Ancient Winters sits in the Asgardian vaults, where it's sat since Odin stole it from Jotunheim hundreds of years ago. Yes, it was stolen, and not recovered. Odin was not the all-powerful, all-right all-Father that he claimed to be." This caused a few grumbles from the nobles gathered around Thor, but they were willing to at least let her keep talking, even if they hardly listened. Like all of Asgard, they revered Odin, flat-out denying some of the truly awful things he had done. "Odin invaded Jotunheim after the Jotuns attempted to take over Midgard, which is all fine and good. It was in retaliation, since Odin, as the ruler of Asgard, was supposed to protect the Nine Realms and allow them to maintain their autonomy. But instead of attacking to prove a point and then retreating, he sacked the city, destroyed the palace, and stole many things, the Casket and the Crown Prince included. The Casket of Ancient Winters should be returned to the Jotuns, since it was stolen from them in revenge. The Casket also helped to maintain the realm, which is slowly dying without it. Jotunheim has grown less powerful, and the realm itself is fading. The Casket helps to sustain the cold that Jotunheim's known for, and without it, the realm is fading. I've seen it myself."

 _Seen it? When did she go to Jotunheim? How did she go to Jotunheim? Heimdall would have known, and he would have alerted me immediately. Unless it was while she was on Midgard, the last time we all thought he was dead…_ Thor said nothing, allowing her to continue.

"Besides, Loki never wanted to seize the throne. This was a genuine attempt to help us, not a wild scheme to seize the throne while we were all conveniently out of the way. If he'd wanted to do that, he would have done it already," Laurel informed them, again earning a few whispers from the other members of the Security Council. "Odin raised his boys differently. They were raised together, trained to be kings, but it was always Thor who was meant for the throne." The grumblings grew louder, but she continued anyway. "Thor was trained to take over the throne of Asgard when the time was right, since Loki is a Jotun. There was no way Odin would let a Frost Giant sit on the throne of Asgard. But Odin deluded them into thinking both boys could one day become the king, made it some awful contest of good behavior and showing off when Loki was never in the running at all. Sure, he was jealous. Any of us would be if we were in that position. But he's changed. I've watched him change, but even before I met him, he was becoming a different person. He's not trying to get the throne, not any more. He just wanted to be seen as equal to his brother for once, something Odin never saw. But especially now, after we've had our kids and put some real roots down on Asgard, he just wants to live. He wants to live and raise our boys and see them grow up to be the best people they can be. He's not trying to steal the throne, because he knows there's so much more to life than that."

 _Equal. What did he say years ago? "I never wanted the throne. I just wanted to be your equal." Yes, I think that was it. Sure, I was Father's favorite, but he was our mother's. Clearly he didn't see it that way. He's told her so much. I wonder what else he's been hiding. It's Loki. There must be a lot._

"No harm has come from this. The Jotuns haven't invaded. The throne of Asgard is secure. The Casket of Ancient Winters remains safely in the vaults. Nothing that you feared has happened," Laurel concluded, "so there's no need to go as far as banishing him. It's incredibly disproportionate, and would be a reminder of the kinds of punishment that Odin deemed to be just."

Laurel and Loki sat together, holding hands as Thor and the rest of the Security Council consulted in another room. Neither of them said much, but they held on to each other, hoping and praying for the best. The guards kept a watchful eye on them, but tried to give them as much space as they could.

It took them almost an hour to return, Thor decreeing that, "Loki, attempting to make a deal with the enemy, no matter how positive the results may have been - in that we were not invaded and that the Casket is safe - is still high treason. No matter the result, the crime must be punished. At this time tomorrow morning, you will be sent to the old town of Asgard, in the middle of Norway, where you will live without contacting Asgard, in order to ensure a just punishment for a crime that may very well have resulted in the total destruction of Asgard."

"No," Laurel breathed, jumping to her feet. "He's your brother. You can't condemn him to live and die alone for thousands of years! Not when that wasn't even a real trial, and you know it!"

"Love, don't," Loki warned, holding onto her tightly. Sitting down in defeat, she let him kiss her, saying, "it's not worth it. It's not worth fighting. You've done so much for me already. He was never going to change his mind, no matter what you said." He sighed to himself, realizing that the clock was ticking as he was released from his handcuffs. He had 24 hours of freedom to roam the palace before he would be hurled down to Midgard and everything would change.


	83. The Last Night of Our Lives

"Twenty-four hours," Loki sighed, taking Laurel's hand and leading her from the throne room. They were still surrounded by guards, who only started to disappeared when they reached the hall, returning to their normal positions and taking back their posts.

"It's better than nothing." Laurel paused as they kept walking, shaking her head. "No, it's still too short. It'll never be enough time."

The two of them spent the majority of the day playing with their kids, taking them out in the garden and to the nearby zoo. They had decided not to explain what was going on quite yet, instead just telling them that "Dad's going on a very long trip, and won't be home for a long time." Laurel couldn't bear to tell them that they were going to lose their dad too, not after they had lost their brother so recently. So they spent all day together, wearing the kids out to the point that they fell asleep right after dinner, Loki carrying them to bed and tucking them in.

Every move they made was carefully watched by the guards, who whispered about Loki being banished as they went by. The servants would whisper in the halls, some of them blatantly discussing the trial in front of them. Laurel would glare at them, silencing their conversations, but Loki had resigned himself to the fact that people were going to talk. He did make sure to magically shield the kids from hearing any of it, though, so they wouldn't ask too many questions. They already wanted to know where he was going, and why, and if he would bring them back presents. As he said goodnight to them, he felt a distinct twinge of sadness, knowing that the only time he would ever see them would be the next morning when he went to say his final goodbyes.

Already it seemed like time was flying by. Loki wished that he could have nabbed the Time Stone from Stephen Strange, using it to extend the time he had left on Asgard, winding time backwards and stretching the minutes into hours. But even then, he wouldn't have the rest of his life. The day would have to come to an end eventually. It was the natural cycle of things, and delaying the inevitable would only make it more painful.

Loki softly closed the door to the boys' room - they had gotten bunk beds after Nari had died, since they didn't want to be separated from each other - and headed back down the hall. Laurel had thought it was a good idea, since they would help each other heal and not feel so alone after they had lost their brother. Honestly, she had no idea what would help them. The self-help and grieving books only told her so much, and she figured that at the very least, getting them bunk beds and letting them have sleepovers with each other every day wouldn't hurt.

Finding Laurel standing out on the balcony, he wrapped an arm around her waist, looking up at the stars with her. "You'll be able to see some of the same stars in Norway," she offered, trying to think of something to say. All day, they had had the kids with them, paying attention to them instead of dwelling on what was going to happen in the morning. They could be at least a little distracted by the laughter of the two boys, who would take their hands and pull them along on whatever adventure they had thought up. But now it was just the two of them, and the silence, and the stars. "You'll be able to see the same stars, and know that I'm looking at them too."

"Dance with me."

"What?" Laurel turned to look at him, as if he had suggested they jump from the balcony. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Dance with me, love. One last dance." He took her hand, spinning her around until they were silently slow-dancing together in the middle of their bedroom. Laurel sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder as they moved together, Loki again wishing he could crystallize that moment in time and live in it forever. "You know, the first time we did this, at the first gala that Tony Stark hosted… I knew I wanted to do that again. I knew - from the moment you sought me out, even though you could have spent the evening with so many other people… the moment you defended me in front of all of those people, I knew there was something different about you. Even before then, when you insisted on talking to me when all of the other Avengers practically refused to, I knew. But that first dance… I had been looking forward to it for ages."

"I think my favorite first dance was at our wedding," she offered as they carefully avoided crashing into an ottoman. "With half of Valhalla there, demanding our attention. But you were the only one I wanted to look at that night. You… seeing you at the end of that aisle, I have no clue how I didn't start crying. You looked wonderful. Not that you don't always look incredibly handsome, even when you just roll out of bed," she smiled, looking up at him.

The two of them had stopped dancing, Loki bending down to give her a kiss. As Laurel wound her hands into his hair, time seemed to slow down, Loki pulling her closer. He gently pulled her over to their bed, snapping his fingers to turn the lights off. His soft kisses turned into warmer, more frantic ones as he leaned in to tell her, "You know, this feels like the end of the world. The last night of our lives as we know them."

"Then we better make it a good one, my prince." Laurel smiled, seeing how the moonlight glinted off of the devilish grin he gave her in response. Her smile faded as she realized that she could feel the pattern of scars that laced his back. That meant he had let his guard down, letting her run her fingers over the scars that he hated so much, the constant reminders of the tortures he had faced, which he carried around with him everywhere but only let her see.

When they had thoroughly exhausted themselves, Laurel curled up next to him, Loki putting an arm around her and kissing the top of her head. "I'm going to miss this terribly. I'm going to miss having you next to me even more than that, but there is something to be said for - love? Laurel, are you alright?" He paused, realizing that a few tears were dripping down her nose. "You're crying… Have I hurt you? I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was being that rough, I didn't think we -"

"No, I… it's because you're going to leave and I don't want to let go of you. And you're crying too," she noticed, sitting up a bit to be able to look him in the eye. "I can't bear thinking about… Knowing that I'm going to never be able to hold you like this again."

"I don't want to go," he said simply, holding her close to him as he talked. She could feel his breath catching in his chest, Loki desperately trying to calm himself down before he cried too much. "I've never had anything like this, anything worth trying desperately to hold onto. I've never had anything I've been so afraid of having wrenched from my arms. I would gladly give my life for yours, for our boys. You've saved my life more than once, Laurel. You've made many days worth living. When you live for thousands of years, you get bored. You can fly through days of meaningless living. But with you, even if I do nothing all day, I feel like I'm doing something that matters." The words spilled out all at once now, Loki not bothering to try to catch himself. "Even if they're horrible days, or boring ones, I have you to help me through them. Time matters more when you're there. There is no other way to explain it. Everything matters more. All of Asgard seems different, different from the place I spent so many restless days. I can't bear losing you, love. I know I will be able to talk to you and look in on your life through portals, but never being able to touch you again, to hold you like this, to kiss you… it's exactly like being behind a glass wall in the dungeons."

"Loki?"

"Yes, love?"

"Please don't let me fall asleep."

"I won't. Don't let me fall asleep either." Neither of them said it, but they knew there was an added sense of, "I want to stretch out the time I have with you, and sleeping would take too much of it away." Loki took a deep breath, admitting, "You know, when I first laid eyes on you, I never would have thought it would end like this."

Laurel laughed to herself, saying, "Us, married, laying in bed together? I totally called it. Kidding, I thought you were a bit condescending for technically being a prisoner in the Facility. You annoyed me a bit, but I felt bad that everyone had written you off as totally evil. I knew what it was like, being the villain when you were just trying to scratch out a place in the world. So I thought I'd at least try to talk to you, so you wouldn't have to be alone. And I'm glad I stuck with it." She reached up and gave him a kiss, making Loki smile a bit as he pulled a blanket over her. He knew she had to be cold, especially since she was draped over someone who was naturally much colder than normal people.

"I thought you were annoying too," he confessed, running a hand through her hair absentmindedly as he talked. "You showed up and took over my space, and you kept trying to talk to me and make conversation. But it was nice, having someone there, even if it wasn't for long. I hated to admit it to myself, but the first night you were away on a mission, I missed having you in the library with me. I denied it for a while, but I came to see that I felt better every time you showed up. I caught myself actually enjoying spending my time with you, and enjoying texting you when you were away. And seeing your eyes light up when you mastered a new spell… I was so thankful when you finally kissed me, because I had been aching to do that for so long that it physically pained me."

"Well, I'm glad I did," she sighed, "despite everything that's happened to us. I wouldn't trade it for anything."

"Neither would I." He looked down at his wife, thinking of the day, so long ago, that they had first gone out on a proper Midgardian 'date'. They had been sitting in a restaurant when the couple next to them had started whispering, asking each other if that was really the man who had tried to take over New York, betting each other that it couldn't really be him. Laurel had turned and snapped at them, coming up with a witty response as they finished their desserts. She had cried then too, when they got to the parking lot.

 _Mascara running down her cheeks, Laurel stared straight ahead, looking at the car in front of them but not really seeing it. They were beautifully tragic tears that rolled down her face and onto her dress, illuminated by the slowly fading lights inside of her car. As the doors automatically clicked shut, she wiped at her cheeks, taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry," she said, not meeting his eye. "I'm sorry, I really shouldn't be crying. I shouldn't have snapped at those people. I understand if you don't want to do this again. Let's just go home."_

" _You're crying… for me," Loki managed, reaching over and taking her hand from the steering wheel. Laurel finally looked over at him, nodding. "No one's ever done that, not like this. People don't defend me like that. Thank you."_

" _You're thanking me for crying?" she asked in disbelief, trying to read the look on his face._

 _Loki nodded, brushing the hair out of her face and leaning in to give her a soft kiss. "I'd very much like to do this again, but perhaps next time we should go in disguises."_

 _That made her smile a bit. Good, he could still make her smile. It was truly a sight to see, and it made him happier too. "Next time, we'll go in disguises," she affirmed. "For now, though, I think we should go home."_

 _When they reached the Avengers Facility, they didn't go inside right away, instead opening a portal up to the rooftop, the rooftop that had first spurred them to go out for an actual dinner. Laurel had long since stopped crying, but Loki knew that she was still mad, mad at strangers for saying awful things, even though he deserved them and much worse. She had defended him regardless. Even though he knew what he'd done, that he was a monster. He looked over to where she sat watching the stars, deciding that, all things considered, that evening had gone well. He'd followed all of Thor's advice and made her laugh, so it had to count for something, right?_

" _They're pretty, aren't they?" he asked, sitting down beside her. "See that one there? That's the star that fueled one of the greatest weapons-manufacturing operations for Asgard. It's where my brother's hammer came from, where my knives came from… It's dying now, which is why it's so bright at the moment, but that's life."_

" _What was Asgard like?" she asked, leaning her head on his shoulder. "I'm sure it's much different being here. Not just being on Midgard… it must be so different, not being treated like a prince any more. You must have had the world at your feet there."_

" _One tires of it," he assured her, thinking of how Thor had always been the one to be showered with the praise that came with being a prince. He had been treated well by the guards and the servants, no doubt, but Thor was always clearly the favorite. "There are better things in life than a simple title like that."_

" _Like this?" She turned and kissed him again, Loki nodding._

" _Like this."_

The two of them lay there talking, reminiscing about the past and confessing things they had never told each other for hours. Neither of them wanted to sleep, to shorten the time they had together, so they stayed up and talked until the sun started to rise over Asgard. "I'm sorry," Laurel finally said, sitting up and stretching in the morning sunlight. "I stalled it as long as I could."

"What do you mean? You don't have the Time Stone."

"No, but I stretched out time as much as I could without it. I bought us a couple more hours," she confessed, leaning down to give him a kiss. "We've got to get dressed. They'll be here for you soon."


	84. Goodbye(frost)

"Boys, please, you can change as soon as this is over. Settle down and stop playing with your uniforms," Laurel hissed, Finn and Jake immediately stopping their fidgeting and standing up straight. They had been woken up early to say goodbye to Loki, who still maintained that he would be back, at least in front of them. He and Laurel had promised they wouldn't let the boys see them cry. Laurel would explain everything later, when they started asking why he was gone for so long. She planned on dragging it out as long as she could, but eventually, she would have to tell them that he would never be coming back to Asgard.

As Loki said goodbye, hugging both of them tightly, Laurel stood just a few steps away. She could see how much it was tearing him apart inside, having to say goodbye and knowing that they would not understand why he was gone for so long, and why he would never be coming back. Looking at the two dark-haired little boys hugging their dad, Laurel had to bite her lip to keep herself from crying. The boys had loved Loki from the moment they were born, and now, seeing the three of them together for the last time, she was on the verge of tears. But no, she couldn't let them see her cry, at least not yet.

They said their goodbyes, the entire atmosphere of the room changing as soon as Emla had led the boys away. It seemed like everyone there had silently agreed not to tell the young princes everything, instead avoiding the words "treason" and "banishment" until they were safely out of the room. As soon as they were out of earshot, though, Thor looked to his brother, instructing him that he was to "never contact Asgard again, nor cause any mischief on Midgard, and to remain in the old city of Asgard in Norway until given further privileges. You will never return, and the Bifrost will be closed to you after Heimdall has sent you to Midgard."

Loki nodded, accepting his punishment gracefully. He had had time to think about it in the dungeons, late at night after Laurel had gone to sleep outside of his cell. There was no way he would ever fully come to terms with it, but being sent to Midgard wasn't the worst thing that could happen. He had already been through that. But having his family ripped away from him, the family that he had gone through so much to build and to keep safe, now that was close to the pain that he had faced in the dungeons years before. However, when Thor stepped down from the throne, coming to clap a hand on his brother's shoulder and lead him outside to the Bifrost Bridge, Loki objected, looking back at Laurel and voicing his one request. "Please let me say goodbye to her. Just for a moment."

"Very well. Just for a moment," Thor cautioned, Loki already on his way to where Laurel stood, trying to hold herself together. He watched as his brother embraced her, the only person he had ever connected with so effortlessly. Sadly, he thought back, all the way back to when they had met. He had warned Laurel about Loki, about what he had done and how he could be, but he was glad now that she hadn't listened to him. He thought of the first time Loki had called him, asking for advice about her. When he had almost giddily knocked on his door to tell him about their first real date. When he had come looking for advice on how to ask her to marry him. When he came to announce that Asgard would soon have another prince or princess. Thor had watched their entire love story unfold, and now he was watching the tragic ending.

Engulfing Laurel in a hug, Loki tried to memorize the feeling of holding her, the scent of her hair, the exact pattern of her heartbeat. "I have met you in a thousand different universes," he whispered, his words coming out in more of a flood than the controlled speech that he had had in mind. "I've looked up at a thousand different balls to see the same princess meeting my eyes, run into you into a thousand different libraries, kissed you in a thousand different rain storms, but I will cherish every single moment we've had together. Even the banal, boring ones. Every moment of stealing glances at you as you read, talking to you while you cook, dropping into bed next well beyond the point of exhaustion and seeing you there - I will treasure every second of it."

One of the guards cleared his throat, Laurel and Loki glancing over at him with a scowl. The not-so-subtle signal meant that it was time to go, but neither of them wanted to be the first to let go of the other. "Loki…"

"I know." Loki's voice weakened a bit as he added, "Please… don't let go. Don't let go of me. Laurel, please..." Even if she had let go, he didn't think he would be able to move.

"I love you. If it's really the last thing I get to say to you in person, I love you, Loki," she answered, holding onto him tightly and paying no attention to the rest of the world. "I love you, and I will always love you. I'll make sure the boys know how much of a hero you are, how strong of a person you are. And I swear I will never stop loving you." A guard had taken Loki's arm, gently pulling the two of them apart. Brunnhilde had reached for Laurel, but she wriggled free of her grasp. "Wait," she told the guard, pulling Loki into one final kiss. "Goodbye, my prince. I love you."

"I love you too," he told her, not breaking eye contact as he was led away, the crowd of officials moving outside and slowly proceeding towards where Heimdall would open the Bifrost and send him down to Midgard for good.

Laurel had always liked watching the Bifrost Bridge being opened, even from the palace. There was a dazzling light, one that would light up much of Asgard, especially at night. It made the Rainbow Bridge shimmer unlike anything else, and it was a beautiful sight to see. But today, she hated watching Heimdall go about his work, hated seeing the sparkling light of the Bifrost Bridge, hated the fact that Brunnhilde held onto her arm as Loki looked back at her before stepping into the bridge.

It reminded her of the first time she had ever come across the Bifrost, when she and Loki had visited the rebuilt Asgard for the first time and decided to make their home there. It wasn't the first time she had met the Asgardian people, but they were still equally as fascinated by her as they had been then. Even now, they watched her constantly. She was almost a legend, the Midgardian woman who had become a goddess and a princess, who had helped to save the entire planet more than once, and who had sacrificed and lost so much for them, even when she wasn't an Asgardian herself. The Bifrost still held the same magical allure for her as it did back then, but now, Laurel could only look at it in despair.

It felt like all of Asgard was taking a deep breath, the light of the bridge radiating across the nearby homes before abruptly dying out as the bridge closed, separating the two realms once again. Laurel, along with the rest of their group, stared for a moment, the spell of the Bifrost finally breaking as everyone around her began to talk again. Brunnhilde let go of her arm, Laurel just standing there in shock. The rest of the crowd began moving back towards the palace, but Laurel still stood staring at where the Bifrost had opened. "I'm sorry," came Thor's voice from behind her as much of the crowd shuffled away, "but it had to be done."

She could feel herself crying, her vision blurring as Laurel turned around to face him. Thor caught her in a hug, apologizing again and trying to immobilize her as she punched him in the chest. He caught her arms, hugging her tightly and continuing to apologize and try to justify what he had done. But there was no explaining. His words just washed over her, Laurel focused on nothing but her anger and the pin she was in. Eventually, Laurel stopped struggling, looking up at him with tears in her eyes. She had cried herself out, finally taking a deep breath and addressing him. "You're just as cruel… It would have been better if you'd had him executed. At least I could have visited him then."

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A.N.: A short chapter, but a sad one :( Don't worry, though, Loki's got plenty of tricks up his sleeves! As always, thanks for all of the comments and encouragement. You all are the best!

Also, it amazes me to see people commenting on earlier chapters as they read through them. It's really weird to think that people read a few chapters a day, like a real book, and leave comments, go about their lives, read a few more, and so on. Do all authors feel like that, or is it just me? Is this what it feels like to be an author?


	85. Go to Helheim

The sky outside was completely cloudless, letting Laurel look up at the stars from her balcony. It was a beautifully clear night, but the air felt heavy. Everything felt heavy, the weight of the world on her shoulders as she sat there, watching the sky. There was a tiny glimmering speck that she knew was Earth, far off from where she was on Asgard. The boys were fast asleep in their room, Laurel making her nightly pilgrimage to the balcony to stare at the sky, the same sky that Loki could see from where he was marooned on Midgard.

Loki had taken over the now empty village of Asgard, in the middle of nowhere in Norway. He had his choice of homes, and had settled on one that was closest to the library, which had been assembled from books scavenged from neighboring towns. At night, he would climb up to the roof and look at the stars, calling Laurel or opening a portal to be able to see her. After a lot of pestering, Thor had allowed them to exchange phone calls. They had to be careful with their portals, though, since they technically had been forbidden from seeing each other. So while they would sit up late talking every night, they would only risk opening a portal once a week or so.

It had only been a few months since Loki had been banished, but to Laurel, it felt like a year. The boys still asked nearly every day about when he would be coming home. She had let them speak to him, but slowly had to begin explaining that he would be away for a very long time. She would stretch her explanations out over the years, she thought, until they were old enough to understand that he had been sent away forever. She had taken to keeping Thor at arm's length, going about her work on Asgard and back on Earth without involving him very much. Thor, for his part, had given her her space, understanding that she was still mad at him for sending her husband away.

Laurel had been thinking for a while about trying to find a way to bring Loki back. The most straightforward thing to do would be to bring Thor to Jotunheim and have everything explained to him, but she knew she wouldn't be able to get him to listen that easily. There had been something else nagging at her, though. She had wanted to understand more about why Thor was so adamant about sending Loki away, why, when his brother had tried to explain everything, Thor had still refused to listen. It must have had something to do with how Odin brought him up, how Odin had instilled such a loyalty to Asgard in him. Everything came back to Odin - Asgard's problems with the Jotuns, Thor's fierce loyalty to the throne, Loki's attempts to look just as important and effective as his brother in defending Asgard, Odin and his legacy had a hand in all of it.

She had visited Odin in Valhalla before, but there was one person who would be able to tell her more about the Odin that Thor and Loki hadn't grown up with, the Odin who had brought peace to the Nine Realms through violence and bloodshed. She wouldn't be too happy to see her, but Laurel thought she ought to give it a shot. Of course, Loki and Thor couldn't know about her plans, and, for that matter, neither could Heimdall. So she told Loki goodnight like always, hanging up and going to bed with a plan forming in her mind, a plan that would involve some complex shielding magic and a whole lot of danger.

Helheim was a barren place, darker and rockier than many of the other realms. It wasn't cold or fiery like many concepts of "hell" seemed to include, but the desolation reminded her of being on the moon. There wasn't much there, but the eerie feeling of being watched followed her as Laurel walked into the palace, the only building in view. "Well, long time, no see, sister," smiled the woman who sat on a black throne, crackling energy dancing in her hands. "Last time I saw you, you threw me into a mirror dimension. What brings you crawling back?"

"I gave you this realm," Laurel reminded her, approaching with caution. "I gave it to you as a mercy."

"Hmm, mercy? No, you gave me a realm filled with anguished souls and then trapped me here inside an even larger mirror dimension," Hela sneered, Laurel stopping a few feet away from her. Up close, she could see the once-great goddess in detail, noticing how deadly she still looked and how she was glaring like Laurel had banished her. Well, she had banished her, in a sense. "What do you want?"

Laurel took a deep breath, launching into her explanation with gusto. "Thor's banished Loki for trying to get help from the Jotuns in dealing with Thanos. I figured you would know a lot more about dealing with him, since you know a lot more about dealing with Odin. And you know much more about the wars with Jotunheim than anyone I can talk to on Asgard, since you were there. You might be able to help me, but mostly I was just curious."

Hela nodded, zeroing in on the stone that hung around Laurel's neck. "You are the new Goddess of Death and the only person alive who's mastered the Death Stone... I must say, it is admirable. You know, you and I could have been so much alike. You could have had more power than you knew what to do with. And yet you choose to let my brother rule Asgard instead, when you could easily turn him to ash with a wave of your hand."

"Ruling through fear never lasts. There is always an eventual uprising, and then you're out of power if you're lucky, and dead if you aren't," Laurel countered, crossing her arms. "Besides, I don't want the throne of Asgard. I don't want to rule the country. Right now, I'd just like to have my family back together, as much as we can be."

"Do you know where that stone came from?" Hela asked, Laurel looking down at her necklace. The slight glow of the stone stood out even more here, where any light contrasted with the darkness of the palace and the barren landscape. "Not how it was formed, but what it's done?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, you never found out…" Hela smiled knowingly, conjuring a chair for Laurel, who took a seat, nodding her thanks. "It makes sense that you were never told. They paint Odin very differently nowadays. There really is a lot that isn't in the Asgardian history books. Odin gathered all of the Infinity Stones years ago in order to bring peace to the realms. We conquered a whole lot of them together, my father and I. We did so well… but then he realized what true power meant. He knew that I would be the only one strong enough to rule all Nine Realms, and he was afraid. So he sacrificed me for the Soul Stone, and sent me here. Locked me up in Helheim so I wouldn't pose any kind of threat. I was here for ages before I managed to get out."

Hela detailed how Odin had been gathering the stones for years, finally sacrificing her to get his hands on the Soul Stone when he had grown too afraid of what she could do with even just a few of the stones in her hands. He had nearly killed his own daughter, his oldest child, the one he had treasured so dearly. She had proved too powerful for him to control, so he had found a convenient way to take care of her while tightening his hold on the Infinity Stones, and, therefore, on the Nine Realms.

When he had finally brought relative peace to the realms, he had scattered the Infinity Stones across the universe to keep them safe. Some of them had been hidden on different planets, while some of them had been given to specific people for safekeeping. The Time Stone, for example, was given directly to the Master of the Mystic Arts Agamotto. Agamotto became the first person to truly master the stone, passing it on down to the next Sorcerer Supreme, who would keep it safe after his death. Ultimately, it would end up in the hands of Stephen Strange, and temporarily, in Laurel's hands too.

The other stones were scattered, the Space Stone being left in Norway after a battle with Jotunheim, Hela told her. The Jotuns had tried to come to Midgard and take over, starting in a small town in Norway. Odin had pushed back, throwing them from Midgard and attacking Jotunheim with the full force of the Asgardian army. That was when he had found Loki. Symbolically leaving the Space Stone hidden in Norway after the battle, Odin had unknowingly tied the stone into the fate of his adopted son.

"He believed there had to be an end to all of the war and death that had brought the realms to his feet," Hela explained, "so he hid the Death Stone from me and sacrificed me for the Soul Stone before I had time to hunt it down. If I had it in my hands, I would have been the most powerful being in the universe, the other stones be damned. But now the new Goddess of Death has it, and she's wasting it. If I were you, dear sister-in-law, I would use that stone to take all of the power I could ever want. No one would be able to stop you."

Laurel shook her head, saying, "That was the whole point of separating the stones, so no one could have complete power over the universe. This one might be stronger than some of the others, but that still doesn't mean it should be exploited. I don't want to rule the entire universe. I just want my husband back."

"Do you know what there's something that looks like that purple being's Infinity Gauntlet hidden in the Asgardian vaults? Why he was so intent on destroying Nidavellir and all who lived there? Yes, I've been watching you all from here," Hela explained after Laurel raised an eyebrow. No one had told her about the events that happened after she brought Ragnarok to Asgard, but she clearly hadn't missed very much in Helheim. "Odin had one forged to contain all of the stones, the Death Stone included. That was how he managed to bring peace to the realms, by threatening complete destruction. He would have turned everything to dust, save for Asgard. But he came to believe that so much chaos and death was not the best thing for the Nine Realms, so he decided to abandon the idea. Instead he used the empty threat if destruction to intimidate everyone else until they bowed to his authority."

All of this was new to Laurel, but she didn't doubt it. Odin had clearly changed since he conquered and pacified the realms, but he was still far from perfect, far from the venerated image of a faultless king that the Asgardians had in mind and far from how he saw himself. But that's not why she had journeyed all the way to Helheim. "What am I supposed to do about Thor, though?" she asked, trying to steer Hela back on topic. "He's not turning into Odin, but he takes after him. You've handled your father for far longer than I have, so you're the best person to tell me - how do I deal with him?"

"I think you already know the answer," Hela told her, regarding Laurel's question with skepticism. "You need proof that Loki is innocent, do you not? Go to Jotunheim. Piss my brother off."


	86. The Other Asgard

A.N.: So today at work we had an argument in our kitchen about who's better, Loki or Thor... we had to leave it and get back to work, but then we all ended up emailing back and forth about it :) (#TeamLoki of course)

* * *

The abandoned town of Asgard was in the middle of nowhere. It had to be, in order to hide the fact that there was a town full of people from another planet that sprung up overnight in Norway. It was a nice, peaceful middle of nowhere, but Loki still detested it. He had been banished to the confines of the town and the surrounding woods, where he often wandered after dinner, hoping to distract himself from the thoughts that nagged him constantly. Not far into the woods - at least not far from the town of Asgard - there was a deep, dark lake, a lake that in which, if he had swum to the very bottom, he would find held the remnants of a casket, and a sword forged in the heart of a star. He didn't know it, but it was the very same lake that Laurel and Thor had stood by, watching his funeral pyre burn after he had been forced to fake his death yet again.

Standing in almost the same spot that Laurel had stood in years before, he sighed, looking out over the lake. The glassy surface reflected the stars above him, the same stars that Laurel could see from her spot on Asgard. If he strained his eyes a bit, he could see the tiny golden light of the planet, glittering amongst the stars. He would stand in the same spot nearly every night, opening a portal to talk through or calling Laurel on the Midgardian phone she had given him long ago. They would talk as long as they could, Laurel sitting out on the balcony and Loki taking up a position by the rocky shore of the lake. It was the brightest time of his day, what he always looked forward to. If he could never be with her again, at least he could talk to his wife from millions of miles away.

That night, he had already hung up, Laurel having nearly fallen asleep while they were talking. As she went to bed on Asgard, he sat watching the lake, watching some of the plants growing by the shore as they waved in the breeze. They had been separated for months, but it still felt like he had been ripped from her arms and hurled out of Asgard yesterday. He tried not to think about it, because when he did, he could feel the heaviness in his chest, the terrible ache of missing her, of missing his family.

He missed waking up next to Laurel, kissing her good morning. Seeing the boys at breakfast and running through the gardens after them. Glancing over at Laurel during meetings, rolling his eyes at Thor and making her laugh a bit. Watching as she tried not to smile in a serious meeting. He missed Muffin, their now old cat, who would follow the boys around and accompany them as much as he could. He missed sitting there in the evenings with his family, reading books with Laurel as the boys worked on their missed how she would lean her head on his shoulder, draping an arm over his stomach so she could read along with him. How the boys would run over and jump onto the sofa with them to say that they were done with their work and it was time for dessert. How he would tell them all of the old myths that Frigga had told him to get them to sleep. How he could fall asleep next to Laurel every night, infinitely thankful that he had managed to find her and carve out something like a normal life for himself, something he never would have thought he was capable of having.

Nowadays it was a lot harder to sleep. He would stay up late, reading books by the firelight. If he ran out of books, he would head down the road from the cabin he had picked out, grabbing more from the abandoned library that had grown dusty in the time since the Asgardians had inhabited the town, but was still filled with wonderful books, books that had been plundered form nearby towns. Well, they had been removed from other libraries or bought at garage sales or open-air markets. The collection had grown while Asgard had been inhabited, and now was something substantial. Many of his days were spent in the library, Loki only leaving when he was too hungry to continue reading for much longer.

He would make his meals in the kitchen of the cabin that he had chosen for himself, eating alone and wishing he could have someone, anyone, to keep him company. The only other living things he had encountered were a few flies, some fish he had spotted in the lake, and a couple of birds and squirrels. Not exactly the best dinner companions. So he would eat alone, looking forward to talking with Laurel soon.

That night, he had hung up thinking of how tired he was, how he wanted to get to sleep soon. But back in his cabin, sleep eluded him. He would toss and turn, wishing he would be able to roll over and pull Laurel closer to him, thinking that all was right in the world. But all was not right, and it never would be again. He would always resist the urge to conjure a ghostly image of her, no matter how much he wanted to see her, because if he tried to reach out for the hologram, his arm would go right through it, shattering the illusion and leaving him even sadder.

When he finally did get to sleep, he would almost invariably dream of loss, of the dungeons, of something horrible. Something he would wake up from and wish that Laurel was there with him. He knew she had similar terrible dreams, but the two of them managed to calm each other down and make each other fall back to sleep peacefully after bolting up from their separate nightmares. Loki looked up at the moon through the window that sat next to his bed, sighing and trying to close his eyes.

" _Do it again."_

" _No, please -" The rest of his sentence was cut off by a jolt of electricity coursing through his body. Every nerve felt like it was on fire, like he was being boiled or burned alive. Somewhere far off, someone was screaming. No, not far away. It was him. The yelps of pain echoing in his ears were his own. Loki managed to take a short breath, lightning crackling in his lungs as he inhaled._

 _The buzzing in his ears began to fade out, Loki able to relax in his chair as the pain slowly ebbed. The metal restraints around his wrists and ankles still burned white-hot, but the electric pain was fading, at least for now. "This is what you get for betraying Asgard, oh mighty prince," sneered the nearest guard, Loki recoiling as he was shocked again. "Maybe this will teach you who is in control here." There was a witty reply on the tip of his tongue, but the pain overwhelmed him and everything faded into darkness before he could open his mouth._

 _When he came to, it wasn't because of the sudden lack of pain. No, it was because of the sudden, piercing agony that he felt in his back as one of the guards carved something into the exposed flesh. The War Eagle - it was one of Odin's favorite symbolic tortures, saved for enemies of Asgard. He would end up with a massive, eagle-shaped scar stretching over his back. Well, he would have, if it wasn't for the others that already laced his skin. The sting of the "drawing" was nothing compared to the traditional rubbing of literal salt into the wounds, a pain that was dull and sharp at the same time and something that was incredibly hard to wash off, even in the best of conditions._

 _As he looked up, he could see people gathered there, watching as tears dripped down his face, tears he couldn't control no matter how hard he gritted his teeth. The nobles up in the gallery had paid a whole lot of money to be there, watching their prince be reduced to tears for betraying Asgard and nearly causing an invasion of Midgard. They kept jeering at him and cheering on the guards, but he largely tuned them out, focusing on trying to breathe evenly and conceal the true amount of pain he was in. He hung his head again, watching blood drip onto the floor._

" _Stop!" Someone was suddenly yelling from the balcony, the guards rushing to quiet the person. But the voice would not be quieted, objecting and telling them that what they were doing was horrible, inhumane, and something that no one deserved, even if he had nearly started a war._

 _He looked up to see who was defending him in the crowd of people cheering for him to be hurt even more, locking eyes with the woman who was passionately defending him, even though it would put her in danger too. "Laurel?" he managed to croak, growing more and more confused. No, she shouldn't be here. She was never here. No. Something's not right._

Bolting up in bed, Loki took a deep breath, realizing that he had been dreaming. It was all a dream. He wasn't being tortured, but he was covered in a cold sweat, twisted up in his sheets. With a sigh, he lay back down, remembering that he was alone. Normally, Laurel would have woken up too, even if he hadn't made a sound. She had developed an instinct, knowing when he was about to wake up in terror even when she was dreaming of something far happier. She would wake up and shake his shoulder until he was awake, or, if he had already bolted up in bed, she would reach out for him, making him realize that it was all a dream, that she was real, and that she was right there. She would wait for him to pull her into his arms or take her hand, depending on if he wanted to be touched or not.

There were some nights when he would wake up with every scar burning like it had just been carved into his back, so he would clasp her hand and listen to her whispering about how it was all a dream, that she wouldn't let anyone hurt him like that again if she could help it. He wouldn't say anything, trying to focus on what she was saying and block out all of the things running through his mind at a million miles an hour. She would lay there and talk until he unclenched his jaw and managed a "thank you", leaning in to kiss him before backing away again, giving him enough space to breathe but still holding onto his hand.

Other nights, he would give anything to hold onto her desperately, Laurel winding her arms around him and intertwining their legs until he was able to breathe normally and wasn't sobbing into her hair. She would listen to him half-hysterically recounting whatever twisted thing he had dreamt about, running a hand through his hair until he had calmed down and started dozing off again. She could never predict what kind of awful dream it would be, but she would always wake up just as he did, reaching out for him in the darkness.

She never questioned it in the morning, never pried for information, never asked anything other than "How'd you sleep?". She never looked at him any differently, even if he had tearfully fallen asleep half laying on her. For his part, he tried to do the same, not asking too many questions after she had woken up from a nightmare. It wasn't nearly as often, but he tried to take after her every time.

Tonight, though, Loki was alone. He rolled over, staring out the window in the moonlight and wishing beyond all else that he could hold onto her again. Even if it meant he had dreams like that every night for the rest of his life, he wanted to be able to sleep next of his life.


	87. The Traitor

"I need your help," Laurel began, stepping through a portal into the heart of Valhalla. She had just put the kids to bed, coming back from a boring Security Council meeting to read them a story and make sure they got to sleep before she went about her mission for the night. Frigga and Odin, meanwhile, had been settling down for the evening after a feast, starting to get ready for bed. "Thor's done something awful, and I need to know how I can best convince him to go back on it. I figure his parents ought to know a thing or two more than I do."

Odin looked up at her questioningly, Laurel launching into an explanation of everything that had happened over the last few months - how they had fought Thanos, how Loki had tried to get the Jotuns to help, how Thor had mandated his arrest for high treason just for talking with the Jotuns, how Loki had been thrown down to Midgard and barred from ever returning to Asgard again. The two of them listened attentively, but were clearly taken aback by Laurel just appearing in their quarters with no advanced warning whatsoever. Frigga was the first to speak, telling her that she needed to talk to Thor, to try to persuade him to see that what Loki had been doing was for the good of Asgard, and not some warped ploy for the throne.

"My dear, he was dealing with the Jotuns. It is a crime on par with treason," Odin reminded her, seemingly talking to both his wife and his daughter-in-law. "No matter what interest Loki had in mind, dealing with the Jotuns at all is a crime. Most definitely if he was also trying to conduct an unauthorized deal on behalf of Asgard. Thor was right in banishing him, and we should be thankful that the Jotuns did not get further down the road to coming to attack Asgard. What is more, Loki was lucky, my child. Treason is an executable crime."

Laurel and Frigga shared a knowing look. "If the benefits of having the Jotuns backing Asgard outweighed the cost, would there really be anything so wrong with talking to them? Besides, why is it a crime to associate with them at all? They're not evil beings. They're angry with how Asgard has treated them, for sure, but they have every right to be. I would be angry too if you had bested me in battle, let me retreat back to my planet, and then tried to attack and take over, never mind plundering for relics and stealing my child."

"It was a service to Asgard," Odin defended, clearly growing angry. He stood, pacing the length of the living room as he talked. "Everything I did was in service to Asgard. I sacrificed my own daughter to protect my people, and I would do the same with my sons, without question Every time they were punished, it was for the good of Asgard. Thor has made the right decision, punishing Loki for what constitutes high treason."

Laurel crossed her arms, refusing to grow outwardly angry. Instead, she replied in a cold voice that stopped Odin in his tracks. "No amount of me holding him in the middle of the night when he wakes up in tears, screaming because of the images of torture that he still dreams about, no amount of telling him that I love him whether he looks like an Asgardian or like a Jotun, no amount of me trying to give him some semblance of a normal life, no amount of… of anything will ever make up for you banishing your son, lying to him, throwing him to those wolves you had torturing people in the dungeons, treating him as less than his brother...Nothing I can do will ever change that, and nothing I can do will ever fix it. I just have to help him live with it."

Before Odin could offer any sort of rebuttal, Laurel conjured a portal, stepping right through into a cold, icy landscape. She closed the portal off, snapping her fingers to encase herself in a bubble of warm air as she ventured forward into the heart of the Jotun palace. She had been to Jotunheim once before, when she had gone to explore the places that Loki had lived in order to bring herself some sort of sense of peace. She had ended up dining with the two Jotun kings and their families, learning a whole lot about the planet and its people.

This time, though, she was on more of a defined mission, hunting down Helblindi and Byleistr, Loki's brothers who had claimed the throne and decided to share their power in a way that the Asgardian kings never seemed to be capable of. The first guard she came upon was one she had met before, so he bowed to her, offering to bring her directly to the two kings.

"Her Royal Highness Princess Laurel of Asgard, the Goddess of Death and Master of the Mystic Arts," the guard announced, ushering her into the throne room, where she looked up at the two blue-hued kings, both of whom nodded to her in deference and waited for her to explain what she was doing there. "Your Majesties, she has come to you with a pressing concern."

"Your Majesties," Laurel began, looking between the two of them, "Loki was arrested, tried, and banished from Asgard because he talked to the two of you. To be short, I need your help in proving that he wasn't trying to overthrow Thor and claim the throne for himself. Thor and I had gone on a dangerous mission, and Jotun magic would have helped a lot. That's all he was thinking, I know it… I just need your help to convince Thor that he had the best interests of Asgard in mind."

Byleistr nodded, leaning over to whisper something to his brother in a language that Laurel had rarely heard before. Of course, the Jotuns spoke their own language amongst themselves all of the time, but the only other person she knew who could understand it was Loki, who almost refused to speak it. But she had caught him a few times, reading books that had, for years, been banned on Asgard under Odin's rule. The first time she had stumbled upon him, he was reading aloud under his breath, but stopped as soon as he noticed that she was listening.

" _No, go ahead. It sounds beautiful, even if I don't know what any of it means." Loki frowned, going back to reading in silence. "Please?" Laurel asked, curling up next to him. She'd grabbed a blanket, since he had reverted to his Jotun form and was extremely cold, but she had gotten used to this._

" _If I must," he sighed, starting to read the runes out loud to her. None of it made any sense, but the lilting language, especially in Loki's voice, sounded wonderful. Besides, some of the stories had been illustrated - it seemed like a book of myths, at least to her - so she sort of caught on to the gist of the stories._

 _That night, she asked him how he had learned Jotun, since it had been banned on Asgard. It had been from books, he told her, books he had hidden from Odin when he had learned about who he really was. He had learned more about who he was, but had to hide it from the rest of Asgard, lest they find out what kind of monster their second-favorite prince really was. He had learned all of it from books he had plundered from libraries across the universe, from snippets of audio he'd found hidden away, and from records that had been sealed in the Asgardian vaults thousands of years before. He had never planned on sharing it with anyone, but she ended up being the exception to many things, Jotun included._

The two brothers consulted for a little while longer, Helblindi finally turning to her and assenting. "If you bring the Asgardian king here, we will discuss this with him. We will not treat his presence as an act of was, as long as he does not bring an army and does not attempt to invade Jotunheim. I like you. I trust you, to an extent. You are not a typical Asgardian, it is clear. But we must protect Jotunheim, you understand."

"Of course. Thank you, Your Majesties," Laurel smiled, finally seeing a bit of hope. If she could convince Thor to come with her to Jotunheim (or if she could manage to whisk him away without his total assent), there would be a decent chance that Thor would reconsider his decision. If not, she would appeal to let her and the boys at least visit Loki. Thor knew how much they all loved Loki, and how much he loved them, and how much it pained them to be apart for so long.

"Do not bring an army," Byleistr warned her, his red eyes flashing as he thought of the last time the Asgardian hordes had arrived on Jotunheim. "If you bring anyone to fight with you, we will be forced to return the aggression."

"Of course," she nodded, thanking them again. As they returned to a discussion in their native Jotun, she opened a portal back to Asgard, where she could be warm without a magical sphere surrounding her in warm air. "I'll come with Thor soon."

She hadn't been back on Asgard for very long when there was a knock on her door, Laurel opening it to see Thor, Heimdall standing by his side. They were flanked by two guards, who grabbed her by the arms and handcuffed her gently, fully aware that she was a princess. Besides, she could still destroy them if she wanted to. "I'm sorry," Heimdall offered, "but you know that contacting the Jotuns is a form of high treason."

"By the Nine, don't tell me you're serious. Thor, you know I was - you know exactly why I was talking to them," she sighed, appealing to her brother-in-law. "You're not seriously going to throw me into prison for trying to help my husband."

"Until you're able to stand trial, I have to. It's a precaution. I know you mean well, but it is still a precaution that we must take," Thor said, seeming apologetic but still greatly bothering her. with how stubborn he was being "I truly am sorry."

"Then it's on you to explain this to the boys. You're going to have to tell them everything about how you've made a terrible decision and how you're trying to cover it up by throwing all of your problems into the dungeons or down to Midgard where you don't have to deal with them. You try explaining that to my children."


	88. Hope

Laurel was given a cell much better than those of the other prisoners. It had decent lighting, and, more importantly, it had furniture. She could see other prisoners sitting against bare stone walls in half-lit cells, standing up and stretching every few hours, walking around their tiny cells to get some sort of exercise. Most of the others just brooded, waiting out their time in the bowels of the dungeon.

It was boring, waiting, but it was even worse knowing that she couldn't talk to Finn or Jake and that she couldn't explain to Loki what had happened. He would know something was wrong when she didn't call or text him to say that she was busy on a mission. He wouldn't be able to reach her, though, since no portals could be opened into the dungeon, and the cell she was in had greatly weakened her powers. Loki would be trying to get ahold of her, and there was no way she could contact him to stop his worrying.

With a sigh, Laurel got up and started pacing too. She knew that she had blocked Heimdall from seeing into her quarters, but he clearly was able to detect if portals were opened on Asgard, no matter what methods of concealment people had tried to use against him. _He turned a blind eye on me talking to Loki through portals, then. If he knows every time a portal is opened, he definitely knew about it and never reported it. Still, he knows why I was on Jotunheim. So does Thor. Thor. You've got to talk to Thor._

One of her fellow prisoners was singing, Laurel trying to listen in as she walked back and forth in the confines of her cell. "Cut it out," a guard bellowed, the man falling silent as a squadron of guards came by on their routine patrol. "Quiet on the hallway."

Laurel rolled her eyes, leaning against the wall and watching the guards go by. From where she stood, she could see three other cells, and slivers of a few more down the hall from her. The first was occupied by a man who had been there for ten years for having tried to defect from the Asgardian army. The cell directly across from her belonged to a man convicted of forging thousands of dollars of Asgardian money, the the third housed a woman who had killed her husband. Laurel didn't blame her, though, since her husband, at least according to the whispers they had all shared across the hall in the middle of the night, had been a horribly abusive man who had repeatedly beaten her and their children. After thirty years of marriage, she had had enough.

There was a noise down the hall, several of her fellow prisoners heading to the glass walls of their cells to try to catch a glimpse of the action. Someone clearly important was trying to head down the cell block, the guards loudly discussing how best to move them without attracting much attention. Finally, the noise died down, a lone figure striding over and coming to a stop in front of Laurel's cell.

Thor didn't look too comfortable in the dungeons, but then again, he had rarely come to visit anyone being held captive. "How are things down here?" he asked, crossing his arms and trying to figure out whether or not what he was seeing was an illusion.

"Could be better," Laurel shrugged, almost immediately launching into what was bothering her. "I know you're holding me here because you have to, but while I was on Jotunheim, I talked to Helblindi and Byleistr, Loki's brothers. They're willing to talk to you, and I think you should take them up on it."

"Why would they want to talk to me?"

This was an easy one. "To prove that Loki was really there to negotiate for their help in fighting Thanos. They lost a lot because of him too. They're willing to talk to you, to try to work out an actual peace with Asgard. This is a chance to do something Odin never could. You could actually manage to stop the aggression between the Asgardians and the Jotuns, and bring peace to the realms. We'd also get a great ally."

Thor considered this, but he could see the many implications of negotiating with Jotunheim. "What do they ask in return?"

Laurel shifted a bit, admitting that, "They don't want too much. They want the chance to talk without any sort of weapons or warriors present. They want to sit and explain their side of the story, the story that started centuries ago. They want to try to get past the problems that Odin and Laufey had. It won't be a new start, but they want to try to get past all of it. And they want the Casket of Ancient Winters back."

Having grown up hearing stories about how the Casket of Ancient Winters had been used as a weapon against the Asgardians until Odin had seized it, Thor wasn't too keen on the idea. But he had warmed up to the idea of having a Jotun for a brother, so he still considered it. "No."

"Their planet is going to die without it," Laurel argued, trying in vain o make him see how much the Casket meant to them. "The Casket of Ancient Winters helps to fuel the cold that allows them to live on Jotunheim. It's been missing for centuries, and everything is slowly starting to thaw. They're already losing some of their abilities, and if the Casket is gone for too long, all of the Jotuns will die out."

To be completely honest, Laurel half expected him to reply with something like "then let them die out", but Thor paused for a moment before telling her that, "The Casket of Ancient Winters is an incredibly powerful weapon. The Jotuns have tried to conquer Asgard without it and severely damaged our troops and our planet. WIth the help of the Casket, they could do much more significant damage."

"They're dying! Their planet is dying! The Casket of Ancient Winters could save all of them," Laurel protested, her voice muffled behind the glass but still ardently defensive of a people she had hardly ever met. She took a breath, softening her voice as she added, "Jotunheim is slowly dying. Thanos killed off half of them, just like he did with Asgard. But they're also losing people because the planet is defrosting. Loki is a special case, since Odin helped to mask him since he was a baby, but most Jotuns need to be in freezing temperatures. It's just like if we kept moving Asgard closer and closer to the sun and gradually boiled our people alive. They wouldn't notice it at first, but when they did, it would be because they were literally melting. If you don't return the casket, you will almost single-handedly be responsible for killing off all of Jotunheim."

"Laurel -"

"My husband is a Jotun, Thor. He's hated who he was since the moment he found out, because all of Asgard was taught to believe that Jotuns are evil and that they deserve to be killed off. They're just people, like us," she added, the emotion dripping in her voice. "We're basing Asgardian-Jotun relations on a war that your fathers started hundreds of years ago. There's no reason to keep the war going, and there's no reason to stand by passively and allow an entire planet to die just because you were raised to believe they were the enemy."

"Our people would riot. We would be losing a valuable weapon -"

"Valuable? The Casket of Ancient Winters sat in the vaults for ages." Laurel countered. Two guards walked by on their routine patrol, slowing down to listen in on the heated exchange between their king and the princess now being held captive. "It may have value, but we've never used it. The only person who is capable of using it… The only Asgardian who is capable of using it is now sitting in a tiny abandoned town in Midgard, abandoned by his own people. Thor, you've never seen him… You've never seen him as a Jotun, not really. You may have caught glimpses of it, but you never had to convince him that being a Jotun isn't repulsive."

Her powers were severely limited by the special cell that she had been placed in, but it mostly dulled her magical abilities. Her other skills were still perfectly fine, so she placed her hand on the glass, forcing Thor to see some of the memories locked away inside her head, memories that she only shared because they were her only hope of potentially convincing him to work with the Jotuns.

 _She had come in from a long day of training, wanting nothing more than to grab a shower and a bite to eat. No one was around when she jumped into the shower, but Laurel was startled to find a blue figure sitting in an armchair, serenely reading a book, when she walked back into the small living room of her quarters. She had seen Loki like this before, of course, but this was the first time he had decided to lounge around as a Jotun, the first time he had let down his guard enough to just sit there in a form that he detested._

 _Without a word, she grabbed a blanket, coming to sit on the arm of his chair. Almost as soon as she sat down, though, his skin began lightening, Loki starting to defrost and turn back to the form that she was used to. "Don't," she told him, reaching out for his icy hand. "You're handsome either way. I think the blue is nice."_

" _I could kill you if I touched you when I look like that," he cautioned, setting his book aside. "That's one of the reasons I never take on the form of a Jotun."_

 _Laurel stood, pulling him over to the sofa so they could sit together. "I'm a goddess, remember? And besides, I've got some decent healing abilities and power over death, so I think I'll be fine. I'll risk a bit of cold if it means I get to sit here with you. I've been looking forward to seeing you all day."_

" _You know, you're the first person… The first person I transformed in front of willingly and didn't mind," he admitted, fumbling for the right words. "I grew up hearing about how Jotunheim was a lawless place, a place no one but the bravest warriors could return from alive. The Jotuns were monsters, monsters who would snatch children and freeze them to death for no reason other than their own sick enjoyment. They had this weapon - the Casket of Ancient Winters - that, if we Asgardians hadn't captured it, would have been used to freeze all of Asgard and take over the realm. The Jotuns were evil in a snowy form, an evil that was used in every horror story imaginable. So there's a bit of a reason that I am not overly fond of appearing like this."_

" _Hmm." She leaned onto his arm, snaking her own arm over his stomach as she confessed, "I think you look just fine as a Jotun. I also think the Asgardians are a bit narrow-minded if they never questioned all of these stories, all of these myths about Jotunheim that they were fed for years. I don't think the Jotuns are bad at all. A bit chilly, but not bad at all."_

" _Well, you're likely the only one around here who thinks that way," Loki sighed, finally meeting her eye. Truth be told, she didn't mind the blue skin. She didn't mind the fact that he grew much colder in his Jotun form, even if she had to wear sweaters in the middle of blazing summer days to be near him. But the blood red eyes were a bit unsettling. Got to be because if your eyes are blood red on Midgard, there's something very wrong, she reasoned. Still, she loved seeing him embrace the person he had hidden away for so long, even if it was just in front of her._

" _Then we're absolutely surrounded by idiots," Laurel laughed, reaching up to give him a kiss. "The Jotuns are good people. Asgard has just never had the opportunity to see them outside of what they've been taught for so long. It's hard not to see someone as your enemy if all you've been told about them is that they want to kill your people. But they'll learn. They need to see Jotuns like I do."_

 _Loki shut her down immediately. "I'm not appearing in front of all of Asgard like this. The rumors are enough." He kissed the top of her head, realizing that she was the only person who had never minded him looking like a Jotun. Odin hated it. Frigga reminded him to keep his Asgardian form - even though she didn't outwardly say it, she too was biased against the Jotuns. Thor had been raised to believe the Jotuns were monsters, even if he later found out that his own brother was one of them. And the rest of Asgard… well, the rest of Asgard would gladly watch Jotunheim burn._

" _Not you, silly. It doesn't have to be you. We can just start teaching them that there's no reason to continue the wars that your fathers started ages ago when the Jotuns aren't threatening anyone any more. They'll listen to the prince and princess, even if what we say isn't exactly what they want to hear," she reasoned._

" _They'll listen to the princess," Loki countered, Laurel looking up at him and raising an eyebrow. "They revere you. But me, well, they aren't nearly as fond of me as they are of you. Just be careful what you say, love. I'm already a demon in their eyes."_

 _As she lay her head back on his shoulder, Laurel pursed her lips, trying to cut off his negative way of thinking about the Jotuns and about himself. "Well, my dear demon, we're going to change things. We're going to teach Asgard that there are better things worth fighting against than the Jotuns. Like the beings in the Dark Dimension. Now those are unequivocally evil."_

" _I wish all of Asgard thought a little more like you do," Loki sighed, knowing that her idealistic idea was likely very far from reality._

" _They just have to fall in love with Jotun princes," she mused, holding onto him tightly. "But not this one. I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep this one."_

" _Pretty sure?"_

" _Definitely sure," Laurel laughed. "Now stop being so serious and tell me about everything you did today. As long as it has nothing to do with training programs."_

"Alright," Thor acquiesced, everything flashing through his mind in seconds. "We will go to Jotunheim tomorrow. We will bring the Casket of Ancient Winters. We will talk with the kings and see what negotiations will take place, but I am not going to promise you anything."

That was enough. It was much more of a start than Odin would have made, and much more progress than they had made in hundreds of years of Asgardian-Jotun relations. If all went well in the morning, they might be able to reach a real peace with Jotunheim, something lasting. And if Thor believed Byleistr and Helblindi's story, maybe she could also get Loki back. She wouldn't set her sights that high, though, since they still had a lot to get through with the Jotuns, and no promise that any of it would work out. But there was hope.


	89. A Diplomatic Mission

A.N.: I feel like writing another chapter that focuses on Loki and Odin and how toxic that all was bc my own parents are being annoying. But it doesn't fit in with the story... perhaps I'll find space for a chapter like that later, bc I'd really like to explore that dynamic a lot more bc there's a whole lot to unpack there.

* * *

Morning dawned bright and early on Asgard, Laurel rolling out of bed and pacing around her cell restlessly as she waited for Thor. He seemed to be taking forever to get there. _Is he rethinking everything? Is he actually going to show up? Thor, where the Hel are you?_ She watched as the other prisoners began waking up, going about their routines. Some of them would get up and start working out. Others slept in late, staying up late at night in order to read.

Finally, Thor came down the hall, accompanied by a guard, who opened Laurel's cell and locked it again, letting her out so she and Thor could journey to Jotunheim. First, though, they left the dungeons, heading out to locate Heimdall, who would be opening the Bifrost for them and who would be keeping track of them on Jotunheim just in case they needed to make a split-second escape.

"We will not be bringing the Casket," Thor told her, leading the way as they walked. "We are going to settle things before we consider returning it to the Jotuns."

Laurel just nodded, glad to be able to stretch her legs and get out of her cell, even if Thor gave the order for her to be returned to the dungeons after their expedition. Besides, she had to think about how she would lead their negotiations while making Thor feel like he was in charge the entire time. Loki had told her about how Thor dealt with the Jotuns, and she wanted to avoid a repeat of the hubris-filled speech that he gave.

Heimdall bade them a good morning, opening the Bifrost Bridge and allowing them to cross between realms, stepping from Asgard to Jotunheim. As soon as they arrived, Laurel cast a protective shield around them, creating a bubble of warm air so they would not freeze to death on the icy planet. "Let's go," she said, walking with Thor towards the massive palace that lay ahead.

The two of them were intercepted by a guard, but he recognized Laurel immediately, offering to bring them directly into the palace to face Byleistr and Helblindi. They accepted, trailing in his wake as the Frost Giant led them through the palace gates and into the halls of the ice fortress. It wasn't long before they were face-to-face with the Jotun kings, making their formal introductions and bidding each other hello.

"Princess of Asgard," Helblindi began, giving her a bit of a smile, "this is the Asgardian King Thor?" _He looks a lot smaller than I remember him. Perhaps it is because the crown now weighs him down. What a foolish boy he was, all those years ago. He best have grown wiser, for the sake of Asgard, let alone the sake of his own family._

"Yes," Laurel answered, taking a step forward. She still didn't trust them all of the way, but she had a better rapport built up with them than Thor did. And by far a better record. "He's come to hear what you have to say about Loki with his own ears. For the sake of Jotunheim, please, tell him everything."

 _For the sake of Jotunheim? Oh, you foolish Midgardian woman, how little you know._ "Very well. Would you like to begin the tale, brother?"

With that, the four of them began talking, Byleistr and Helblindi relaying the story of how Loki had first come to them for help. He had opened a portal to appeal to his brothers, apologizing on behalf of all of Asgard for the violence that they had caused in the past. The brothers listened dutifully, Loki telling them about Thanos and about how he had massacred half of the universe. "It was then that we knew what had happened to our people," Byleistr added, explaining that at first, they did not know what was happening when half of the planet suddenly vanished.

"We had grown used to the weary duty of burying our people," Helblindi said, slyly reminding them once again of the missing Casket of Ancient Winters. "With our dying planet, this was nothing new. But suddenly every other Jotun vanished, and we knew something was wrong, even if it was not in our realm. Something had destroyed the balance of the universe."

That had been Thanos' first attack on not only Asgard, but the rest of the universe as well, as Loki had described to them. He had apparently told them that he had been forced to hide out in Valhalla, only returning once Laurel had found a way to bring him back, before bringing the rest of the vanished people back to their respective realms.

None of them said a word about it, but Laurel knew that was one of the reasons they were willing to listen to her and to respect her authority. She had brought their people back from the brink of extinction, even though they were once again facing trying times. And Loki had helped. So they were at least willing to hear him out when he came to them for help, since he had indirectly helped them while Laurel was bringing the Jotuns back from the Soul World. And thus, the two Jotun kings let their brother speak, even though he came to them on behalf of Asgard.

Loki had begged for help, describing how Thanos had attacked Asgard directly in search of one of the Infinity Stones that they were protecting, and how he had kidnapped half of the royal family. "I must admit," Helblindi mentioned, "we are not on the best of terms with our brother. But when he told us of how brutally Thanos had plucked his children from the safety of Asgard, how he had murdered your youngest child," he was speaking directly to Laurel now, who nodded as if she was telling him to continue, "and how he massacred your citizens, we were moved. Then he told us how concerned he was that they two of you were going on a mission to attack Thanos, and how you had only a handful of magicians to back you up."

Byleistr spoke next, agreeing with his brother. "He was terribly worried about you, and asked for our assistance. We were about to make a deal when he was interrupted by Asgardian guards."

"What sort of deal?" Thor questioned, sounding a little too brazen for Laurel's liking. She instinctively reached out for him, as if to warn him to rein himself in before it was too late. Thor took a breath, settling some of the aggression out of his voice as he clarified, "What was he bargaining?"

Helblindi took his turn to speak, looking past Thor's tone as he answered. "He offered to return the Casket of Ancient Winters in exchange for help in your fight against Thanos. We gladly would have attacked Thanos outright, since he killed half of our people as well, but the Casket helps to sustain our planet."

"As I explained." Laurel turned to look at Thor, diplomatically trying to resolve everything. "He wanted to return the Casket in exchange for their help. There was no plan to overthrow Asgard at all, no ultimate coup being put in place to take the throne while you were out. He just wanted to help us. Loki cares about us, and is capable of doing things out of generosity and worry, and not just as a mad grab for the throne any time he thinks he can get it." _He's changed, Thor. He's not the same little brother you keep thinking of when you talk about him. He's got a family now, something more to be concerned with than the power he had craved. Even more than that, he doesn't crave it any more. He's satisfied with his lot, because he doesn't have to live in your shadow any more. At least not with the boys and I. He's got something more now._ "He just wanted to help, and now he's been banished for months because of it. Yes, dealing with the Jotuns is a crime on Asgard. But there's no good reason why it should be."

The four of them talked for a little longer, Thor finally pulling Laurel aside as the two brothers consulted. "I do believe you," Thor began, "but giving them the Casket serves no purpose now."

"Giving them the Casket would keep them all from dying," Laurel frowned, pressing the point that no matter what the Jotuns had done in the past, they were not the monsters Thor had grown up believing that they were. Besides, a lot of what they had done had been in reaction to the actions of Asgard. "Saving any amount of lives is worth it. And the Casket just sits in the Asgardian vaults anyway. We can help them, we can gain new allies. Allies we haven't had for ages." _And we can bring Loki back._

Thor thought for a moment, looking back at where Byleistr and Helblindi were sitting, still whispering back and forth in Jotun. On one hand, he would be arming the Jotuns and losing something that could be a powerful weapon _(no, only a Jotun could use the Casket safely. But they would be armed to fight against Asgard if they wanted to.)._ On the other, though, he would be helping to save an entire race ( _a race you fought for ages)(but Laurel saved them once, you could do it again)(they would owe you)(that's meant nothing in the past)(she's looking at you)(you did banish her husband - your brother)(you've got to answer her)..._ "Alright," Thor finally acquiesced, "We can give them the Casket in exchange for the information they've given us."

"Thank you." Without hesitation, she reached out and hugged him, all of the animosity she had built up towards her brother-in-law for months fading away in seconds. "Thank you so much."

The deal they brokered with the Jotuns was far less of a deal than a promise that they would be back in a few moments. They had already gotten the information they were looking for, but the Jotuns had, so far, gotten nothing. Byleistr and Helblindi believed Laurel when she said she would drag Thor back by his ear if she had to, with the Casket of Ancient Winters in tow. After all, she had lost her husband due to Thor and his assumptions about Jotunheim. And even though she was a Midgardian-turned-Asgardian, they could tell that she was far more loyal to Loki than she was to any king set to rule over the land she lived in. She would be back, carrying the Casket.

As Thor and Laurel stepped back through a portal into Asgard, Byleistr turned to his brother, lowering his voice out of habit. "All is still going according to plan, brother."


	90. The Heroic Frost Giant

The Casket of Ancient Winters was returned to Jotunheim moments after Laurel opened a portal directly into the vaults of Asgard. She was clearly wasting no time at all in getting Loki back. Thor, however, had to make the necessary arrangements with the Security Council and get the proper paperwork done, so Loki would not be returning to Asgard until the next day at the earliest. And that was if she could convince him to bring Loki back now, and not leave him on Midgard as a punishment. He had broken the law, no matter what had resulted from it.

There was also the matter of issuing a proclamation to all of Asgard about how they were now willing to work with the Jotuns. "The people will either celebrate or riot in the streets," Brunnhilde had remarked when she found out. "Either way, some big changes are coming."

In reality, the people weren't quite sure what to do. They had, for so long, been told that the Jotuns were the enemy, but now they were allies, even if they weren't quite friends of Asgard yet. Ultimately, a celebration was arranged for the success of the diplomatic mission that had brought a little more peace to the two realms. Laurel, of course, would have to make an appearance. While she was looking forward to being able to help first peace between the two realms, she was looking forward to bringing Loki home even more. First, though, there was the celebration. and then she would have to convince Thor to admit to his brother that he had been wrong to banish him in the first place.

As she stood in front of a massive crowd, Laurel could only think of Loki, of how he would be so proud that they were finally able to bring the two realms together. She would have loved to have had him by her side, proudly standing with the one person who had advocated for the Jotuns all along, the person who had encouraged him to embrace his Jotun heritage and not pay attention to all of the prejudices that Asgardians held about Jotunheim.

Thor had already given his speech, and now it was her turn, Laurel stepping over and taking the podium. People in the crowd below her were whispering, flash-bulbs of cameras going off as she enchanted her voice to carry to the back of the room. Jake waved at her from where he sat on one side of Brunnhilde, Finn sitting soberly on the other. Laurel waved back before looking back to the crowd and starting her speech.

"As many of you know," she started, commanding everyone's attention, "Well, it's not a secret, not any more, that I am married to a Frost Giant. The Crown Prince of Asgard is not of Asgard, but originally from Jotunheim. I knew this when I married him, and I helped to keep the secret, since Asgard and Jotunheim had been at war for ages. But I promised him that I would always love him the same, whether he looked like the prince you all know or if he was blue and freezing cold. That was something he would never…" She paused, smiling to herself a bit as she thought of Loki sitting in their chambers, turning the room much cooler with his mere presence, "something he would never want to admit. He hated being a Jotun. He was ashamed of it. The Frost Giants were the villains. Jotuns were the monsters in the stories that Asgardian children would go to sleep listening to. But Thor and I have managed to broker peace with the Jotuns after nearly a millennium of animosity, and that is something to be proud of."

There were a few hesitant claps, Laurel continuing, "I'm proud of it because it's changing so many things here on Asgard, for sure. But I'm mainly proud of it because my husband… my dear Loki should never have had to live in fear of people discovering who he is. What he is. No one should ever have to go through that. And after today, after Thor and I settled things with Jotunheim, maybe other people won't have to go through the same things. Maybe this will change things. But the real change will have to be within all of us. I can tell you, the Jotuns are just like all of us. They have families that they love, people that they care about. They have a planet that they want to take care of, and they were just as afraid, just as in shock, as we all were when Thanos began his destructive reign. I've seen it. I've seen how someone that Asgard and Midgard viewed as a monster turned his life around, how he's given me three wonderful children and become the best father they could have ever asked for."

 _Pause for effect. Look over at the kids. Now look back at the crowd. Hold the pause. Aaaaand…_ "I fell in love with a prince of Jotunheim, and he's been nothing but incredible to me and to our children. I hope all of you will be able to see one day that the Jotuns can be just as wonderful as the people of Asgard. Hopefully this is just the first step in a long friendship between Asgard and Jotunheim."

Definitely more applause now, Laurel smiling a winning smile at the crowd before returning to her seat. Thor gave her an encouraging smile as she looked up to see Brunnhilde leading the boys over to their nanny. It was getting late, and the adults still had a few more speeches to go before the wine and ale really started flowing and the celebration could begin properly.

Even after the band had begun playing and people started dancing, Laurel hung back, talking to a group of generals as Thor made the rounds to socialize with the nobles. "He's really a Jotun?" one of the highest-ranking Valkyries asked, regarding Laurel's claim with some warranted skepticism. "Well, he did try to take over Midgard…"

"And? Midgard's had its own share of rulers that try to take over the entire planet," Laurel offered, reaching for a drink from a passing waiter. "He was serving his time with the Avengers, as a sort of punishment designed to make it up to Midgard, when I met him," she reminisced, thinking back to the first gala celebration they had attended together. It was soon after that she realized how much she truly cared about him. "He's been nothing but magnificent since."

No matter how much she was reminded of all of Loki's faults, of how he had fooled them all and hidden out in Valhalla, of how he was still bitter over so many things, Laurel would defend him. She had gotten used to it on Earth, and she knew that deep down, the Asgardians weren't his biggest fans either. A lot of them were just pleasant because he was their Crown Prince.

" _Laurel?"_

" _Hmm?" She set her book down in her lap, putting her glasses back on. The two of them had sat up reading later than usual that night, since neither of them could sleep. Loki had had a series of nightmares all week, and didn't want to go to bed, for fear of being plagued by the same dreams again. Laurel was too keyed-up from the mission she had been on, and even though she was getting tired, she could tell that Loki wanted her to stay. "What's up?"_

 _He stood offering her his hand. "Let's dance."_

" _What?" she laughed, taking his hand and letting Loki pull her closer to him. "Why?"_

" _Because I clearly haven't had my fill of waltzing around a grand Midgardian ballroom with you," he whispered, Laurel feeling the apparent blush rising on her cheeks. The two of them had been almost inseparable at Tony's latest gala, but neither of them had voiced their feelings about it._

 _So she did the only thing she could, letting Loki rest a hand on her hip as he expertly guided her around the furniture and prevented her from crashing into bookshelves as they slow-danced. "Loki, I… we should do this more often."_

" _Of course," he smiled into her hair, the two of them pausing to talk. "I agree, love."_

 _As she took a half-step back, looking up into his eyes, Laurel couldn't help but to smile. "Tony needs to throw more parties like that."_

" _Hmm, I think the two of us is just fine. You know, I was never too find of all of the balls they threw on Asgard. Oh, they were fun, and you could meet some… incredible people, but they were nothing compared to this."_

They had their days when they would dance like that, just slow dancing and blocking out the rest of the world. Even when things were falling apart around them, or when Laurel would come back from a particularly bad mission, they could stop the world for a few minutes, and everything would get better. Both of them came to know when the other would look up, knowing what that specific look meant. Sure enough, one of them would break the silence, asking, "Do you want to dance?" and pulling the other from their chair.

But tonight was different. Sure, Laurel and Thor shred a dance, as was customary since they were the only two remaining members of the royal family in the room. But as the party continued around her, Laurel sighed, realizing that there was only one person she wanted to share this historic triumph with. There was a next-best thing, though.

Creeping through the halls of the palace, laurel carried her heels, not wanting to make much noise and alert the guards. Jake and Finn were already dozing off by the time she reached their room, but she tiptoed in anyway, the boys sitting up in bed as she started telling them an extra bedtime story.

Anyone who passed by in those few minutes would have heard a sweet, motherly voice telling the boys a story, a story of a brave man who spent his time saving people and protecting the universe. He was tall, and blue, and courageous, and strong. This time, in this story, the Frost Giant was going to be a hero. Just like the only Frost Giant the boys had ever met. Just like the first one Laurel had met. Just like the one she wanted by her side more than anything.


	91. Help Me

"You've got to bring him back now. You've got irrefutable proof from the Frost Giants themselves that he wasn't doing anything wrong," Laurel pled, following Thor as he walked through the gardens. She edged him over enough so the two of them could fit on the path together, continuing her appeal. "I know it, and so does the rest of Asgard. It wouldn't be right to keep him locked away in a little old town, all by himself, when he really did nothing wrong."

Thor shook his head, adamant in the idea that, "Loki may have contacted them only about assistance in the battle against Thanos, but he still broke the law. Visiting the Jotuns at all is against the law, unless you are on officially sanctioned government business."

"Then throw me down to Midgard," she threatened, both of them stopping in the middle of the pathway. "I went to Jotunheim too, and I ended up being right. Throw me down to Midgard. I should be punished too, shouldn't I?"

With a sigh, he turned to her, about to argue. But she was right. She had gone to Jotunheim to seek the help that she needed, and had been right, able to show that Loki had gone to help Asgard and not to overthrow it. What she had done was just as against the law as what Loki had done. And yet they had been treated differently, since Loki was a Jotun. And because he had once tried to overthrow Asgard, and had come to rule it more than once. But Laurel had really committed the same crime that Loki had, and she had just been thrown into the dungeons for a day or two and then warned not to do it again, right before they had gone on an official mission to Jotunheim. "Very well. I will consider it."

"Consider it? You really have to consider bringing back some of the only family you have left?" Laurel asked, crossing her arms.

There were a few others in the garden, all of them looking over to where the king and the princess stood, clearly arguing. Even the gardeners had put down their tools to listen in. "There are many factors to weigh here. Now if you do not wish to attract any more attention, I would suggest that you go on inside and keep to yourself for a little while. The more you petition me to bring him back, the less inclined I will be to do it."

"Fine. I'll see you later." Before she turned to leave, Laurel flexed her magic, implanting a seed of doubt in Thor's head. Not enough that he would notice, but enough that he would begin to question if he had made the right decision. He had. _Right? Loki was a threat. Even if he wasn't a real threat, he had opened Asgard up to a threat. He had deserved to be punished. Right? What if he hadn't been there and the jotuns had decided to attack? Asgard would have fallen without him. But no, he wasn't… ridiculous. It's a ridiculous train of thought. Right?_

Satisfied that he would eventually lead himself - or what he believed was leading himself - to the right conclusion, Laurel went back into the palace, leaving Thor to stew in the gardens. He would change his mind eventually, his thoughts rewiring themselves a little every time that he even considered the issue, reworking and rewiring until he had changed his mind. With any luck, he would come to her in the next few days, apologizing with every atom of his being and begging her to not hate him.

It was a lot shorter of a time than she had expected. Laurel had just put the boys to bed and gotten them to sleep, deciding to make a cup of tea and try to get ahold of Loki, when there was a knock on the door. Thor stood outside, clearly wanting to talk about something serious. "I have given it some thought," he began as he crossed the threshold, "and you're right. It isn't fair to punish the two of you so differently, especially when no harm was done, and you were well-intentioned. Both of you had the welfare of Asgard in mind in going to Jotunheim, especially Loki. Therefore, I have decided to reverse my order to banish him, effective immediately."

"Let's go. There's no use in waiting any longer to bring him home. It's been months," Laurel smiled, opening a portal that led them straight into the old, abandoned town of Asgard in Norway.

It was a lot more run-down than she remembered it, and a lot colder. Well, it was fall back there on Earth. The leaves were dropping off of the trees in clumps, forming a carpet of gold and orange. The lake had just begun to freeze, even though no snow had fallen yet. Laurel's breath caught in her throat, the cold hitting her suddenly. Before Thor could say anything about it, she cast a bubble of warm air around the two of them, since they were still dressed for Asgardian conditions, which stayed a lot fairer than Norway's all year round. Thor thanked her, glad that someone there could do magic like that. It was useful, especially on missions to places like this. The poor Avengers were stuck freezing if their suits weren't warm enough, but with someone like Laurel, they could readily adapt to any climate.

"Where is he staying?" Thor looked over to her, knowing that Laurel had been talking to him, and that she would have some idea about which one of the dozens of cottages was actually occupied.

The big problem was that a lot of them looked very similar. "It's close to the lake," she told him, heading off in that direction. "I know he was close to the lake. Look for a house with smoke coming out of the chimney or a light on in the window."

The first row of homes had no lights on, so they moved to the second. As they got further and further away from the lake, Laurel started to worry. There were almost no signs of life in any of the cottages, and few signs in the forest around them. True enough, there were leftover apple peels and other food scraps thrown into a pile near the edge of the woods, but there were no lights on anywhere, and no signs of anyone preparing for winter. "Loki?" Thor called, projecting his voice as much as he could. "Brother?"

"Loki?" There was no hiding the panic in her voice as Laurel called for him, trying to reach his phone. No answer. Even worse, the line rang once and then died. "Thor, something's wrong."

"I know." The two of them stood in the town square now, their backs to each other as they looked around the darkening little hamlet. As Laurel cast a few spheres of light into the air, Thor reflexively summoned Stormbreaker, just in case.

"Let's go back towards the lake," she suggested, glancing over to see her brother-in-law waiting with his weapon drawn. _Maybe I should be ready for an attack. What if something's happened? What if this is a set up to get us here?_ Summoning one of the daggers that Loki had trained her with and pulling an orb of crackling energy from the atmosphere and holding it in the other, Laurel tentatively led the way.

 _This place looks familiar._ She came to a stop by the edge of the lake, looking back at the closest cabin. _This looks like… like where we buried him, when he faked his death. It was right here, from this forest, that we got all of the wood for the casket. We gathered the flowers from over there, back when they were blooming. Yes, it was right here. Right here that we said the blessings and lit everything on fire. Right here where thor and I stood watching it burn. Right here where we were standing last time he died._

Thor too felt like they were in familiar territory. "That cabin right there," he pointed out, "was the one we kept him in."

"It would only be right that he chose that one," Laurel sighed, the two of them approaching the door with a bit of hesitation. Thor readied his weapon, Laurel clutching her dagger tightly as she opened the door, both of them entering the room loudly.

Loki sat in front of the fireplace, not bothering to turn and look at them. The fire had long since died out, the room growing cold. Maybe he had fallen asleep and not bothered to get up when the fire went out. After all, he wouldn't have gotten too cold even if there was no heat in the room. "Loki?" Laurel reached out for him as she stepped in front of where he sat. It looked like his eyes had glazed over, but they were staring directly in front of him. "Loki? Thor, something's wrong."

"That is not Loki," Thor told her confidently. He had started to catch on to some of his brother's illusions. This was a classic hologram, the kind he would send places when he was too lazy to go himself. One without a lot of effort put into it to hide the slight glow around it. He reached out, putting his hand straight through the shoulder of the illusion. It glittered for a second before restoring itself and looking up at Laurel. "Did I activate something?"

"Laurel, love, help me," the illusion told her, pleading as much as an illusion could.

"What happened? Where are you?" she pressed, trying to get any sort of information out of the hologram. It had to be more helpful than this. "Where's the real Loki? What's going on?"

"Laurel, love, help me."

"Loki, you've got to tell me what's happened," she replied, wondering if that was all he had managed to program it to say. "You've got to tell me where you are, or how we can get to you, or… or who took you. What's going on? WHat did I miss?"

"Laurel, love, help me."

She turned to look at Thor, saying, "He didn't get to add anything else. That means someone took him, or he was running from someone, and didn't have a lot of time." Slowly, they looked around the cabin for anything that could help. There were clear signs of a struggle, with things knocked over and spilled onto the floor. A mug had shattered on the ground, and whatever had been in it was frozen to the ground. The kitchen table had several gouges in it, like it had been stabbed repeatedly. There were no signs of blood, but that didn't mean anything. "Who would have taken him? Who would be powerful enough to take him?"

"It is the beginning of fall here on Midgard, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"The puddle of tea on the floor over there," Thor remarked, "is frozen. Should it be this cold here right now?"

"No... It's cold, but it doesn't get below freezing this early, even in this part of the world. Part of the lake was freezing too… Loki wouldn't have done that. Oh gods," she realized, meeting Thor's eye, "it's the Jotuns. The Jotuns have him. And we've just given them back their most powerful weapon."

"And Brunnhilde's the only one left to defend Asgard," Thor added, watching Laurel's eyes widen. "We are just where they want us - away from Asgard."

Laurel was already working on opening a portal back to Asgard, hoping and praying that they wouldn't be too late to prevent its total destruction. As the two of them took a deep breath and steadied themselves to jump right into battle, Laurel took one last glance back at where the hologram of Loki was still sitting, facing the fireplace like he was incapable of moving at all. "Laurel, love, help me."


	92. Defending the Throne of Asgard

All was quiet on Asgard when they stepped through the portal, ready for a fight. Or something worse - the total destruction of the palace and everyone in it. But there were no warriors waiting for them, no Jotun armies overrunning the city and massacring the people, no wasteland where the palace had once stood. Thor and Laurel exchanged a look, venturing further into the palace as they began to notice that something was very, very off. "Well that isn't normal," Laurel remarked, seeing Thor's breath in the air as he talked. It had grown much colder in the halls, frost spreading all over the walls and the floor. "This isn't like Asgard at all."

There was ice all over the floor, snow piling up in drifts in some of the corners. Icicles hung off of statues, and all of the fountains in the courtyards had been frozen solid. It looked like an ice age had hit in the hour or so that they had been in Norway. "They're here," Thor confirmed, every footstep crunching loudly as they made their way through the icy palace. "It's too quiet, though."

"It's a trap," Laurel thought aloud, trying to use her powers to see what lay ahead of them. The eerie silence reminded her of the beginning of a horror movie, so she had decided to try her best to see who or what was lying in wait for them. "There are a few Jotun soldiers out in the town, but everything seems… there's almost no movement outside. There's someone in the throne room, someone bigger and colder than a normal Asgardian or a normal human, but the palace is empty otherwise. I don't think that's right, but it's what I'm seeing." She opened her eyes to look at Thor, who just shrugged and continued on towards the throne room. "You're right, though. It's too quiet. Creepy quiet, almost."

Thor stopped at a window, wiping some of the frost off of it to see outside. "By Odin's beard…" He took a step back from the window, gesturing for her to take a look at what he was seeing. "This cannot be happening."

"What is it?" Laurel joined him, looking out over the city. "Oh gods, they've frozen the entire city. It's snowing over Asgard... Is that a glacier out on the mountains beyond the city? This really isn't right."

"They haven't just frozen the city and the little towns beyond it." Shaking his head, he looked back to her, finally coming to terms with why all of Asgard had fallen silent almost instantly, why she wasn't able to locate anyone else in the palace. It wasn't because the palace was empty, but because everything and everyone had grown too cold too quickly. "Laurel, they've frozen all of the _people._ "

The two of them continued on towards the throne room, Thor carrying Stormbreaker and Laurel flipping a dagger in one hand while holding a crackling sphere of light in the other. They had no idea what they would find when they got there, but they knew that they were in for a fight. If the Jotuns had easily frozen both the Asgardian army and the Valkyries, it would be something big. Even if they had been taken by surprise, they would have put up a fight. Sure enough, they passed guards with their swords drawn who had been easily frozen solid. Some of them hadn't even had the chance to react, but others wore clear expressions of shock and horror.

Laurel pushed open one of the doors to the throne room, her hands growing chilly as she reached out of the bubble of warm air that she had surrounded herself with. Thor tried to stay within his own bubble, being sure to keep himself as warm as possible. "Well, here we are again," smiled Helblindi, who sat on the throne of Asgard. Thor reflexively tensed, the hatred for anyone who threatened the throne ingrained into him from a young age. "Hello, ex-king of Asgard. Princess. Good to see you again."

Putting out a hand to steady Thor and keep him where he was, preventing him from attacking outright, Laurel took a step forward. Between the two of them, she had always been the better negotiator, even though he liked to think himself better. Even though Thor took charge of negotiations, it was usually Laurel who won people over and who gradually brought them to the side of Asgard. "Why are you doing this? We made a deal back on Jotunheim. We brought the Casket of Ancient Winters back, we forged a peace between Asgard and Jotunheim… We've been doing better than we had been in years. We're finally bringing peace to the realms, like we'd wanted to do for ages. Like our fathers - my father-in-law - like they wanted, though they went about it the wrong way."

Helblindi laughed, regarding her as a, "Foolish little girl, you really believe giving back the Casket of Ancient Winters would magically make us forget all of the sleights against our realm? All of the attacks, all of the raiding parties sent from Asgard to scare our people? All of the times your people tried to kill us? The extermination of our people that Odin ordered? Giving us back one treasure means nothing."

"Get off of that throne or I will remove you myself," Thor growled, raising Stormbreaker and preparing to attack. His patience was wearing thin, especially watching Helblindi usurp the throne and relish sitting on it.

"No." Laurel put a hand on his arm, warning him not to do anything. "Fighting him won't do anything. It won't bring Loki back, and it certainly won't help Asgard. There's a better way. There has to be a better way, some way we can sort this out and make up for what Asgard's done to his people."

In that moment, everything seemed to slow down. Laurel kept her hand on his arm for a fraction of a second longer than she normally would have, which allowed her to speak without opening her mouth. She would have been able to jump over into his mind and have a conversation even if they were across the room from each other, but she figured this would be a lot less alarming. Most people would be a bit frightened of they started hearing someone else's voice in their head, watching that person and not seeing their lips move. Loki had grown used to it and would talk to her like that sometimes, though he tried to avoid it, Thor, though, was naturally taken aback at the blatant hijacking of his mind. " _Don't panic. I know, I'm inside your head. Now don't say anything. Just listen to me. The kings are in different realms now. They're at their weakest, even if it doesn't seem like it. They've ruled together for so long, being separated is like missing an extension of themselves."_

" _And?"_ She could tell that it was difficult for him not to speak normally, but he had managed to question her, so she knew he would get the hang of it just fine. Even if he wasn't fond of it, he could talk to her without saying a word. _"How do you plan on stopping him? He's already frozen over our entire realm."_

" _You've got to stall him. The only person who can get this all sorted out is Loki, and they've got him held prisoner of Jotunheim. I'm going to duplicate myself and leave my body double here with you while I hunt him down in the Jotun dungeons. But I need you to stall for me. I know it's hard for you to talk and not jump right into battle, but I need you to keep him talking. The longer the better. Get him to brag, get him to reveal his plan. If we can get a glimpse of his hand, we're going to be able to call any bluff. Notice things for me. Stall him for me. Please. This is the only chance we've got."_

" _You're leaving me?"_ He couldn't hide the panic in his eyes, Laurel keeping her expression steady. After all, the less Helblindi could tell, the better.

" _It'll be just like I'm here, but you've got to take the lead. You're the king, after all. I've got to be able to concentrate on Jotunheim."_

Thor gave an almost imperceptible nod, looking back to where Helblindi sat on the Asgardian throne. As much as he reviled the sight, he would keep the Jotun king talking. If he didn't, they wouldn't only just lose Loki. They would lose all of Asgard. Taking a quick glance back at Laurel, he noticed the very faint shimmer of gold around her. To anyone else, it would just look like the spell she had cast to keep the both of them from getting frostbite. But he knew that it was really the illusion, that the real Laurel had already gone. _You're on your own. You've got to stall him._

" _Mmm, no you're not. Not really. I'm still here."_ He smiled to himself, recognizing the small voice inside his head. Laurel, while on Jotunheim, was still talking, still inside his head. She really was more powerful than he thought, juggling a mission to Jotunheim, keeping up the illusion, and sitting there in his mind, keeping him company and coaching him on what to say next. " _As him how long he's been planning this one. Tell him it must have been a while, a whole lot of effort."_


	93. Let Them Burn

Normally, she would have opened a portal into the middle of the dungeon, but Laurel knew she would likely be outmatched even if she took a group of guards completely by surprise. So she opened a portal up right behind the guard who stood next to Loki's cell, sinking a dagger into his jugular vein and dropping him without a sound. It helped that she had cast a bubble of silence around the two of them, but she had tried to be as quiet as she could anyway.

Now able to take stock of what she was dealing with, Laurel fished the key out of the guard's pocket, unlocking the cell and stepping inside after she cast an illusion over the rest of the hall. Anyone who walked by would see a perfectly calm hall, just as expected. They would completely miss the dead guard and the portal that had just closed, and the prisoner about to make an escape.

Loki was asleep, facing the wall. He had missed all of the commotion so far. She stepped closer, enveloping him in the bubble of silence before sitting down, gently shaking his shoulder. He flinched a bit, clearly startled. "Laurel?" She could tell that he had been expecting someone else, probably a guard come to extract information from him. "Oh my gods." His cold face broke into a smile, Loki sitting up and pulling her into a deep kiss. "I've missed you so much. I love you even more, but… I've missed you." He hugged her tightly, both of them standing up and turning both of them invisible. Now they were impossible to detect at all, totally silent and invisible to everyone but themselves. "Let's go home."

It wasn't how she had pictured their reunion at all, but just being able to hold onto him again was wonderful. He still smelled like Loki, he still felt like Loki, and he could still make her smile like he had always been able to. "I've missed you too. And I love you too. But we've got a lot to do before we can celebrate you being un-banished. You're officially un-banished, by the way." Squeezing him tightly one more time, she reluctantly let go, taking his hand for the first time in nearly a year. "The Jotuns have taken over Asgard, but I think there's a solution. I'm going to need your help, though."

"Thank you for the generous un-banishing, love. What is your plan?"

"Your brothers are separated right now, for the first time in ages. They've been ruling alongside each other for a while now, and they've come to depend on each other. Thor and an illusion of me are stalling Helblindi back on Asgard - they froze all of Asgard, by the way - so we've got to take care of Byleistr ourselves. We've got to do something that'll show Helblindi that we're serious and that will draw him back here. We've got to kill him," she determined, Loki nodding in agreement. "It's the only thing that will bring Helblindi back here for sure. He couldn't let his brother die alone."

"They may have had the same biological parents as I did, but I only have one brother," Loki reminded her as they made their way through the halls of the Jotun palace. "Now, if you want to kill one of my biological brothers, I may just have an idea for you."

The two of them stood together whispering, even though they were both invisible and inaudible to anyone passing by. The entire time, Loki held onto her hand for dear life, incredibly glad that they were back together, even though he was trying to focus on their plan, on how they would get Helblindi back from Asgard and lock him out of the realm. It would be difficult, but not impossible.

While they were plotting just outside, Byleistr sat in the throne room, watching what was going on on Asgard through a portal. He had allowed his brother to go, knowing that he would not need help in taking over. When he had arrived, Thor had been on Midgard, posing no threat. The tenacious Laurel had accompanied him, and with her out of the picture, their only worry was Brunhilde and her Valkyries. But they had been ambushed by the small group of Jotun warriors that Helblindi had brought with, and were frozen before any of them could even think about reaching for their weapons. Helblindi now sat on the Asgardian throne, Thor and Laurel trying to barter with him, trying to do anything they could in order to restore their realm. There would be no deals this time. They weren't going to compromise, and Byleistr could only laugh at the futile efforts of the Asgardian royal family as they were practically begging Helblindi to release Asgard from its frost prison.

"Ahem," Loki cleared his throat, defiantly appearing in the middle of the throne room, his arms crossed as he greeted his brother. Byleistr turned to look at him in surprise, wondering how he had managed to get there. "Hello there, brother dear."

"How did you escape the dungeons?" Byleistr pressed, standing to tower over his brother, growing angrier with every breath. "It is impossible."

"Well, I don't think so," Loki smiled at him, trying his best to get on his nerves. "Now what have you done to Asgard? I hear it's getting a bit chilly there." As Byleistr lunged forward, casting a flurry of ice at Loki, he just laughed, duplicating himself until there were twelve Lokis, appearing all over the throne room. Byleistr would attempt to launch icicles at each of them, but each time he hit one, they would split into three more, all talking to him as one entity. It was nearly impossible to figure out which one was the real Loki, though Laurel could tell immediately as she crept around them all.

"How did you get out?" Byleistr bellowed again, the group of illusions moving around him in an intricate pattern. He had given up on trying to figure out which one of the figures was the real Loki, but he did have a plan to eliminate them all. "There is no way to escape from the dungeons! No one had ever managed -"

"Not important. What's more important is why you went back on your deal with Asgard, even when they had given back the Casket of Ancient Winters and promised not to attack Jotunheim again."

Byleistr raised his hand, ready to send a pulse of ice through the air and knock out all of the illusions. "Since when have you adopted Asgard as your home, Loki? When did you learn to love it? They have always hated you, even though no one knew you were a Frost Giant for centuries. Who changed you? It must have been that woman, that woman who made you think that humans were significant, that they could actually do something to change the cosmos. Right now she's defending your pitiful realm, but we will take care of her soon enough."

Loki couldn't help but smirk at him as he patiently listened. Byleistr was confused, but his expression of bewilderment suddenly turned to one of excruciating pain as a dagger was driven deep into the side of his neck. "I'd call one of those insignificant humans killing a king 'doing something to change the cosmos'," Laurel whispered, suddenly appearing in the air next to him, suspending herself magically as she plunged one of her daggers right into his frigid blue skin. Pulling the blade out, she slowly let herself drift to the ground as the king fell, clutching his neck but not being able to stem the flow of blood in time. He made his best effort to magically heal himself, but it was no use.

As Byleistr fell, there was a tremendous crack that reverberated through the hall, like a sheet of ice had broken off from a glacier. Back on Asgard, Helblindi had heard the cracking noise in his mind, knowing that something was wrong back on Jotunheim. He was being called back, and he would only have been called back for one reason. There was no time to lash out at the Asgardians. He had to get back to his brother. As he opened a portal back to Jotunheim, Loki turned to Laurel, knowing that Helblindi would be back in mere moments. "We have to go and mount the defenses on Asgard before he can get there and get back. We can't let him have the ability to open a portal back to Asgard. It will be doable, but we can't waste any time."

"Let's go, then. We've got five minutes, tops," she estimated, starting to open a portal back to Asgard. "If we're lucky, and we really haven't been that lucky lately."

As the familiar golden light began to swirl, the Asgardian throne room becoming visible, Loki looked back at the throne of Jotunheim. "Wait." He bounded over, grabbing ahold of the Casket of Ancient Winters before joining her again. "Alright, back to Asgard."

"Are you sure? You know what that'll do to Jotunheim if you take it," Laurel warned, looking to the Casket that glowed blue in his hands. Loki too had started to turn blue, affected by the Casket already even though he had only been holding it for a moment. "The Jotuns will melt."

The look Loki gave her was one of pure hatred, but not for her. For the realm that had rejected him when he had discovered where he had truly come from, the realm that had made his life miserable on Asgard, just because he was a Frost Giant, one of the beings that they were eternally pitted against. The look passed quickly, but Loki had to reply rather venomously. "Then let them burn."

* * *

A.N.: Loki is baaaaack! Special shoutouts to all of the people who consistently comment and leave their reactions. I love seeing you all react to each chapter! Thank you so much, loves. It only takes a few seconds, but it means a whole lot and helps to keep me going.


	94. The Melting of Asgard

It took a lot of complicated and rapid spellwork, but Loki and Laurel managed to shield Asgard from anyone coming in from Jotunheim. They didn't know for sure how long the spells would hold, but it would be long enough to start defrosting Asgard, regrouping the army and the Valkyries, and mounting the real defenses. As soon as Thor had greeted his brother, Laurel took Loki's hand and pulled him out to the throne room's balcony, which looked over all of Asgard.

The couple looked over the realm, marvelling at how it was snowing near the forest, how a glacier was forming near one of the bays, and how the entire town below them had been blanketed in ice. People stood literally frozen in place, stopped in their tracks by the Jotuns who had since accompanied Helblindi to see what catastrophe had befallen Jotunheim in their absence. Loki stood at the ends of the balcony, taking everything in. Laurel put her hand over his, making him look down and realize that he had turned completely blue without noticing it. "I'd be able to help, but I think it's really your kind of magic that Asgard needs now."

Taking a deep breath, he raised his hands, gradually defrosting the entire realm. The Casket of Ancient Winters glowed with a strong blue light from its position in the throne room, but really, Loki didn't need it. He was powerful enough without the weapon, far more powerful than many people gave him credit for. Laurel watched in awe as the ice in the lakes began to melt. The fountains began flowing again, and the snow turned to a gentle rain over the forest. Birds began to fly again, and the icicles dripped off of the trees. Rivers began flowing again, and the air became less crisp, less harsh on the lungs.

People in the town gradually warmed, safely returning to their normal body temperatures thanks to Loki and his magic. The stretched, looked around in amazement, and asked each other what was going on. If they were to look up at the palace, they would have seen a blue figure, shorter than the average Frost Giant, but unmistakably a Jotun, standing over them like a conqueror. But he had saved them all, defrosting everything instead of laying waste to it.

Laurel smiled to herself as she watched Loki go about his work. He once would have dreamed of standing there, having all of Asgard kneeling before him, bending to his every whim. But now he just stood there trying to help, bringing everyone back to their natural state of not being frozen into blocks of solid ice. He was finally embracing his origins as a Frost Giant and using his status as a Jotun to help all of Asgard, the people who had, for ages, persecuted his own people and made him hate appearing as a Jotun. She was proud, incredibly proud, of how far he had come. He was no longer the monster that everyone feared. Instead, he was the savior that they had needed in one of their darkest hours.

When everything had been defrosted and Asgard had returned to a normal temperature, Loki stepped back, finally turning to look at his wife. He had gradually turned back to his normal self, the Loki that she was so used to seeing. "I know we will be busy with my brother and Brunnhilde and figuring out our next steps with Jotunheim," he sighed, pulling her into a hug, "but I do believe I've earned the honor of being able to hold onto you for a little while, anyway. Why don't we go find the boys so I can say hello?"

"I think they would love that," Laurel beamed, not wanting to let go of him. She took his hand and talked as they made their way back into the palace and through its newly thawed hallways. "They never stopped asking about you, about when you would be home and why you were gone for so long. Thor tried to explain it one day, but he just didn't have the heart to tell them everything. I had been stalling for a while while I worked on getting him to bring you home, but really, there is only so long you can hold off telling them the truth. They've both gotten so big. You'll see. Jake's really starting to take after you, even more than he was when you saw him last. His magic has gotten so much better. You've got to -"

Loki just nodded, letting her voice wash over him as she chattered on about everything that he had missed, filling him in as they walked. Periodically they would run into people who would stop them and thank them, since everyone knew the secret of the Frost Giant who was next in line for the throne of Asgard. It had been a well-kept secret for a very long time, but more recently, everyone in the palace and many people beyond it had come to know what was an open secret at that point. Everyone knew, but no one wanted to bring it up, lest they face the anger of the Crown Prince.

They spent a long time with the boys, Thor and Brunnhilde coming to find them and holding a defense meeting in the playroom instead of tearing Loki away form his family again. The defenses around Asgard were holding up well, but they would have people on standby at all hours in case the Jotun army decided to attack. Brunnhilde didn't expect that they would, however, since they were in mourning for their king. They had either taught Jotunheim a valuable lesson or angered them even more. It was just a waiting game to find out which one. Either way, she had reported, the Valkyries would be ready.

It was late at night when Laurel and Loki finally got the boys to sleep. They had been filling Loki in on everything he had missed - their birthdays, the holidays, what they had been learning at school, and, of course, how their cat had been doing. Loki was just glad to be able to see them again, to run around with his children, and to see how much they had grown and changed in the (almost) year that he had been gone. He listened intently to their stories, asking them a million questions just like they asked him. When Laurel had to finally make the sad announcement that it was time for bed, Loki volunteered to read to them a bit, not wanting to tear himself away.

"I'm proud of you, you know," Laurel said as Loki dropped into bed next to her. "Years ago, you would have let Asgard freeze and let Jotunheim melt, and then gone off on your next adventure. I'm glad you've changed. It really was amazing to watch you defrosting everything, bringing all of those people, well, it isn't really back to life, but it's close enough."

He wound an arm around his wife and kissed her on the forehead, replying with a brazen, "I know. Honestly, though, I've missed you all terribly. Thinking of you and the boys was the only thing that kept me sane down on Midgard, and in the dungeons of Jotunheim."

"What were they like? If I can ask." She looked up at him, her sincere eyes shining in the moonlight. "Were they as bad as the ones here?"

Loki hesitated for a second before telling her that, "They were bad, but in a different way. The Jotuns have embraced the meaning of 'let them rot in jail'. They throw people in there and starve them, leave them alone in cells made of ice for days. You get fed a meal or two every other day if you're lucky. If you don't freeze to death, you get used to the disgusting gruel that they pass off as food. I watched people slowly freeze to death. I saw others starve because they spent so much of their energy on trying to keep warm - they would run around their cells, jogging to stay as warm as they could. They burned off everything their food gave them, which wasn't much to begin with, And then they would lie down and try to sleep, only to freeze to death from trying to stay warm."

She nodded, thinking back to how cold it had been in the dungeons, how everything seemed to be made out of ice that had been magically reinforced to prevent most of the prisoners from escaping. "How did you do it?"

"I'm one of them, remember?" He looked down at her, his eyes flashing Jotun red as he winked. "So I took on my Jotun form all of the time, so I hardly had to think about the cold. It was nice, not having to rely on spellwork or magic to prevent myself from dying. The only thing I really had to worry about was getting the message to you that something was wrong."

"Well, it worked. I'd been thrown into the dungeons here when they took you, so I wouldn't have been able to notice that anything had changed," she explained, "even if you'd been able to get the message to me. I got fed up with everything that Thor was trying to use to justify banishing you, so I went to Jotunheim to get proof that you weren't trying to overthrow Asgard. Apparently Heimdall figured it out, and they were waiting when I got back. So they arrested me and threw me into the dungeons. It didn't take long for me to convince Thor that he had to at least go and visit the Jotuns, but look how much good that brought us."

Loki shook his head, reminding her that, "It brought me back to you. You know, Thor sincerely apologized for all of this mess. He caught me on my way back here, and pulled me aside to apologize. I know it doesn't change everything that's happened, but it is nice to know that he's changed as well. A few decades ago, my brother never would have acknowledged that he did something wrong when it came to the Jotuns, let alone apologized to me about it."

"Well, personally, I'm just glad to have you back with me," Laurel smiled, reaching up to give him a kiss. "Gods, Loki, I've missed you. I sat up every night after we'd hung up trying to come up with a way to bring you home. I've thought about it a million times, about what I'd say to you when you came back, about everything… and now all I can think of is wanting to hold onto you and never let you go again."

"Then never let me go again," he encouraged, internally marvelling at the fact that he was finally able to hold her again, to have his favorite person in the universe beside him after being apart for months. "I'll be happy to stay right here."


	95. Happy Anniversary

Laurel had just closed her eyes when she bolted up in bed, realizing something important. "Loki… you're not asleep yet, are you?"

"What is it, love?" he yawned as the clock in the hallway began chiming. After so much panic and alarm that day, he was dreading having to jump up and fight another battle. "What's wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong. Sorry. I know, we've been through a hell of a lot recently." She lay back down, propping herself up on her elbows so she could talk to him. "I just thought of something. We've been so busy, so occupied with all of this business with Jotunheim and their kings… do you know what day it is?"

"Vaguely. Ah, it's not your birthday, I know that. Not my birthday either. Nor the boys' birthdays. Hel, I don't even know what the date is. Cut me some slack, though. I've been in prison," he smiled, leaning forward to give her a peck on the cheek. "What day is it, love?"

She twisted the ring on her finger, noticing then that he had never lost his, even after he was thrown in prison, banished to Midgard, and then kidnapped and carted off to Jotunheim. "It's our anniversary."

"Well, happy anniversary then, love. Thank you for saving me from the dungeons. That can be my present this year. I'll get you something soon, though. Perhaps a golden statue next to mine. It would never be able to do you justice, but it would be something quite beautiful."

Laurel laughed, shaking her head. "Having you back with me is enough. I've never really longed to have a statue of myself standing over all of Asgard. I think having a Loki is good enough for me."

"Actually," he began hesitantly, not wanting to divulge everything, even though he would ultimately spill his thoughts to her, "you've given me a lot more than just my freedom from Jotunheim. You've freed me from Thanos as well. Since well before the battle for New York, his voice was in my head. Almost from the moment that I first met him. He'd been halfway controlling me for a while, letting me feed a power fantasy while doing his bidding. When I was condemned to the Avengers Facility, it got better, but I could still hear him, even though he was half a universe away. I would still hear him sometimes, before you finished him off for good. I could hear him whispering, telling me to kill, to destroy, even when I was with you. You helped to quiet him, but after all of this… I'm finally free."

"You could still hear him?" Laurel sat up again, Loki stretching and sitting up a bit so he could better look at her. "After all that time?"

"He would try to tell me things, but I learned to control it, to block his voice out as much as I could. Like I said, you helped. He tried to use me to change the entire universe, but there was no way I would let him. You see how well that worked out."

It was in that moment that Laurel realized that Loki had indeed changed the entire universe, even if he didn't know it or realize it. He had influenced the entire fate of the universe with one decision, a decision made in haste and despair. If he hadn't let go, if he hadn't dropped himself from the Bifrost Bridge and fallen into the void of space, he never would have run into Thanos. Thanos brought him the Mind Stone, and the Mind Stone had brought him to the Tesseract, which he had mastered.

He had brought the Avengers together that way - they had united to fight him, and had, as a result, found each other, formed a team, and started to work together in order to defend the earth. Even if another threat to the universe had forced them to band together, Thor never would have come to Midgard and joined their team. Only Loki could have caused that, could have forced Odin to send Thor to Midgard to fight his brother. New York never would have been threatened with disaster.

 _But then Tony never would have gone through that portal_ , she remembered. _He never would have been able to build Ultron either. Then Vision never would have happened either, not without Loki. Wanda wouldn't have joined the team, because no one would have threatened Sokovia. Sokovia. That was something else. You never would have been able to escape Sokovia, would you? Loki helped to get you out of there, and then he ended up finding you. Funny how things like that happen, things you never realize until much later._

If no one had ever threatened Sokovia, she would have still been working for the facility hidden away in the fortress there, busily running tests and assessing the experiments they held captive. Even if she had left, even if she had run, she would never have ended up with the Avengers after her split from Stephen. Then again, would she have ever met Stephen Strange at all? She had first learned about the existence of the Mystic Arts, about the Masters, and about Kamar Taj and its sister Sanctum Sanctorums _,_ all from research on databases run by Stark Industries, databases that kept track of things and people that flew under the radar. Would Tony have ever gotten involved with things like this if it wasn't for Loki?

If he had never chosen to drop off the bridge, Loki never would have ended up attacking New York. He never would have wound up in the Asgardian dungeons, and would probably have gone on living a lavish life as a prince. Always second to his brother, but he would have still been treated like royalty, as opposed to being treated like a traitor, like one of the worst people Asgard had ever dealt with. If he wasn't in the dungeons, though, Frigga would have lived. No one would have been able to tell the Kurse how to get out of the dungeons, since no one knew the palace's passageways better than Loki had. Frigga never would have been found hiding Jane Foster, and she likely would have survived the invasion. His mother would still be alive, if only he hadn't dropped off of the Bifrost. That, though, she would never tell him. If he put it together himself, then so be it, but Laurel knew that she didn't want to be the one who put the idea in his head.

Odin never would have gotten that weak, never would have died in part because of the immense grief that plagued him from the moment he heard of his wife's murder. Thanos might have been outmatched if Odin was still alive. Odin's power had been legendary, and with the array of weapons owned by Asgard, he could have used his might to put a stop to the titan before he became too powerful. The Tesseract could have been used against Thanos, since it had been closely guarded and watched by agents of Asgard, even when it was hidden away on Earth. It never would have wound up in Loki's grasp, and Thanos never would have been able to claim it as his own.

Without the Tesseract, Thanos would never have been able to complete his Infinity Gauntlet, and he would have most likely been defeated by Odin early on. No one would have dissolved. The entire universe would have been saved from so much grief. One momentary decision, the decision to let go and fall from the Bifrost, had caused all of that.

But it had also brought them together, while Loki was being held in the Avengers Facility. If he had never decided to let go, they never would have found each other. "You did change the universe, though," she finally insisted. "You did one small thing that ended up bringing us together. I for one think that's a pretty good change."

"I never meant it that way," he countered, not meeting her eye. "I never thought… I never thought that making a decision like that would have brought me so much happiness." _It was a death sentence. Landing on Titan was a fluke, something that must have been destined. I would have died if I hadn't landed there. It brought me even more pain. But it brought me to her. And then it brought me the boys. Not all bad, Not all bad at all._

"I know, but look how everything ended up." She reached out and put a soft hand to his cheek, turning him back to look at her once more. "Maybe we can even live somewhat of a normal life for a little while. It won't last forever, but we might be able to have a normal week, or a month, or a year. You never know."

Loki nodded absentmindedly, pulling her into his arms. "Maybe. Maybe not. But I know I'm not leaving you again, I can promise that. Happy anniversary, love. Now let's get some sleep. I'm thoroughly exhausted."

* * *

A.N.: I saw a post online that gave me an idea for this revelation, explaining how Loki had changed so much and is the ultimate cause of a whole lot of things in the Marvel universe. If you think about it, he really did cause so many things that he probably never realized. (On another note, I love when I can use the word "marveled" in the story, just because it's a nod to Marvel itself... gotta find a way to insert a Stan Lee cameo tho!)


	96. Jotuns Aren't All Bad

The two of them hadn't slept for long when Laurel woke up shivering uncontrollably. It could get cold in their rooms at times, but this was worse than normal, even during winter when the Asgardian version of air conditioning malfunctioned and froze them instead of warming the air She felt like she had wandered outside in the middle of winter without a coat or as much as a sweater. Loki hadn't woken up, though, so she just shrugged and pulled the blankets tighter around herself. This didn't help, even after she had stolen all of the blankets for herself, so she sat up, finally looking at Loki, who was still sleeping peacefully, unbothered by the cold.

What she saw made her smile a bit, even though her teeth chattered. He had reverted to his Jotun form in his sleep, which was why she could see their breath in the air. It was him, not the malfunctioning air conditioning, that was freezing the room. But he looked like he was having perfectly normal dreams, so Laurel just shrugged and cast a spell, creating a bubble of warm air around herself before laying back down and falling asleep next to her Jotun husband. He hadn't done anything like this before, but she frankly wasn't surprised. She didn't want to wake him up, though, since he looked like he was having one of his very rare good dreams.

What did surprise her was when Loki shook her shoulder at five in the morning, apologizing profusely even before she had groggily pulled herself out of the dream world. "Loki, what is it?" Laurel yawned, blindly reaching out for him. "What's wrong? What are you dreaming about? I'm right here, you're fine."

"No, love, it's not about a nightmare," he told her, Laurel slowly sitting up and pushing her hair out of her face. He had since turned back into the Loki that she was used to seeing, but clearly looked like he was worried. "I'm so sorry. I didn't realize -"

She yawned again, barely able to make out the clear look of distress on his features. "Wait, slow down. I just woke up, remember? Now what are you sorry about? What's this apology for? You haven't done anything. You couldn't have done anything. You've been asleep."

"Turning into a Jotun in my sleep. I… I'm so used to doing that to prevent myself from freezing to death in the Jotun dungeons that I must have done it automatically. I'm so sorry, love," he pressed, clasping her hand tightly.

Laurel frowned a bit, wondering why he had been compelled to apologize. "Loki, it doesn't bother me. It's fine. I've always told you that it doesn't bother me seeing you like that, even if I fall asleep next to Asgardian Loki and wake up next to Jotun Loki. I'm just glad I get to be here with you. I've missed being able to fall asleep next to you and being able to wake up next to you. I don't care what form you take, I'm just glad I have you here. Besides, you have to deal with me looking like a mess when I wake up."

"No, that's not it. Being exposed to something that cold for so long could kill you, especially if you don't notice it in your sleep. I… it's dangerous even holding onto you in that form. If I don't realize that I've turned into a Jotun, I could wind up freezing you to death by accident." In the light of the moon, Loki looked like he was in pain. She knew that it worried him, but there was no way that she would let it bother him for long. "I don't want to harm you. I've always been worried about harming you by accident, but transforming in my sleep… that makes it even worse. I can't control it… It's like being a - what is that Midgardian legend? A werewolf. I don't realize what's happening until it's too late. I can't control transforming in my sleep, and -"

Leaning forward to give him a kiss, Laurel insisted that, "I'm the Goddess of Death, Loki. I highly doubt that it would harm me. I'm a heck of a lot less susceptible to things like that… getting stabbed might be a problem, but being frozen to death by my Jotun husband isn't much of an issue. Besides, I've gotten used to you being a Jotun. I just surround myself in a spell that'll keep me warm without melting you. Really, this isn't a problem."

Loki shook his head, pressing the point that despite any magical precautions, "Still, it's dangerous, love. No matter what you do."

"Hmm, I don't think so. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I can think of a way to prove you wrong." Giving him a mischievous smile, Laurel pulled him closer, whispering, "Turn into Jotun for me."

He gave her a mortified look, realizing right away what she meant. "What?"

"Turn into a Jotun for me. I want to prove that you being a Jotun won't do much to hurt me, even if you are rather cold. C'mon, let me prove you wrong."

"I…" He took a deep breath, slowly turning blue. He made sure to keep a bit of a distance from her, resisting the urge to hold onto his wife. Instead, he knew that he had to protect her from the monster that he normally tried to conceal, the monster that had caused so much pain and destruction on Asgard. As his eyes reddened, he had to ask, "Are you sure, love? I know you have your magic, and that you are the Goddess of Death, but it still doesn't mean that you have to -"

"Loki, I love you. I love you no matter what you look like or where you come from. I don't mind a bit of cold." Winding a hand through his hair, she pulled him forward, kissing his icy lips once again. At first, he flinched, almost recoiling. It was against his natural instinct to let her touch him when he looked like a Jotun. It was only hesitantly that he would let her sit with him and keep him company as he read in his Jotun form, ensuring that he used up a bit of his magic to keep her warm. But like this, with almost no magic guarding her, he had to force himself not to draw back. His body temperature had dropped significantly already, Loki giving a bit of a sigh and relinquishing himself to the fact that he would, for the time being, take on the full form of a Jotun and grow much colder.

"Tell me to stop if you're too cold," he made her promise, running a chilly hand down her side. "I really won't mind. You're deliciously warm, though. Hmm…" As he moved down to run a string of kisses down her collarbone, he realized how truly warm she was, at least in comparison to the average body temperature of a Jotun. He had missed her terribly during his exile on midgard, but being trapped in the dungeons of Jotunheim made it a hundred times worse. How many times had he dreamt of this, or even just dreamt of having her next to him again? She was warm, and she was sweet, every shiver and goosebump sending a jolt of excitement through him.

"I'll be fine, my prince. Magic can keep me warm enough to survive, but let me be cold… just cold enough," she promised, running her fingers over the raised patterns in his skin. They were breathtaking, marks of his Jotun heritage that he hated so much but that she thought were absolutely wonderful. Just like the scars carved into his skin from the tortures he had been put through, he tried to cover up these Jotun markings. But just like all of those scars, she thought they made him more authentically Loki. They were signs of a life being lived, no matter how that life had treated him. Truth be told, he was cold, but perfectly so. "Loki, I - oh…" She let out a bit of a whimper, her jaw tightening.

He was so concerned, so alarmed that he might have done something wrong that he almost froze. "Have I hurt you, love? Are you cold? Should I st-"

"No. I… please don't stop." She wound her legs around his torso, practically begging. "The cold feels so good against… _please_ don't stop, why are you -"

"Oh, I'm not stopping," he grinned, "I'm just slowing down."

" _Lokiii…"_

"Beg."

"Please."

"I said beg. Come on, princess, beg for me."

"Loki, please…"

Asgard itself had never seen such a strange blend of fire and ice, a couple like the two of them. Loki, the Jotun adopted and disguised by Asgard, was one of the most cynical, scheming, and mischievous people who had ever walked the realm. And then there was Laurel, the Midgardian who had come to Asgard and made the realm fall in love with her almost instantly, who had become the sweet, diplomatic princess that they had always wanted. The two of them were so different, but so perfect together, and all of Asgard knew it.

Laurel could feel his heartbeat as she lay beside him, the quickened rhythm that warmed even Jotun blood. He had wound an arm around her, holding her as close as he could as he spoke. "You're not too cold?"

"No. That was perfect. You're perfect. Loki, I missed you so much." She could feel the flood of emotion welling up in her chest, Laurel taking a deep breath as she added, "I truly thought we were going to be separated for the rest of our lives. We would have found our way back to each other, but… we would have been banished to different planets. I had no idea what I was going to do without you, so I found a way to convince Thor to bring you home. I -"

"Love, I'm never leaving you again," Loki vowed, kissing the top of her head. "The longest I'll ever be gone is to get up and get a drink, I promise. No more galavanting across the galaxy, no more even thinking about conquering another realm. It'll just be about us and the boys from now on. I'll stay here and work on building the arts on Asgard, and you can help train your students here and in the Sanctum, but we will always come home to each other. At the end of the day, that's all we really have."

With a nod, Laurel resolved that, "From now on, we're working 9 to 5 superhero jobs and spending more time here. We're going to be as much of a normal family as we can. But you are still going to be a Jotun sometimes."

Loki smiled, readily agreeing. "Of course, love."


	97. Peace

Breakfast on Asgard was served one of two ways. There were the lazy breakfasts in bed, when servants would bring them their food and leave the couple alone to eat, even if it was the middle of the afternoon when they finally got up. Those were the breakfasts that Loki liked best, especially when he could spend the entire morning sitting there talking with his wife, or when the boys would rush in to say hello before going off to school. It was always a wonderful start to the day, no matter what else happened. They would sit there and eat, watching the snow or the rain or the sunshine, talking and going over what their days would entail.

Then there were the breakfasts that Thor would put on, the formal breakfasts where many of the Asgardian nobles would show up in their finery, parading into the formal dining room with deference to the king, the crown prince, and the princess. They would talk for ages, Loki rapidly growing bored and not bothering to conceal it. Laurel did a lot better, putting on a smile no matter how tired she was of hearing about the minutiae of trading laws and the nuances of taxation. She and Loki would glance at each other, rolling their eyes at the formality of it all. They would drop onto the sofa together as soon as they were free, complaining about the awful people they had been forced to sit next to and how they were ready to go back to sleep as soon as their dining companions opened their mouths to talk.

It was in the middle of one of these very formal breakfasts, held just a few days after Loki had been brought back, that a servant ran in, apologizing profusely. "Your Majesty," he panted, skidding to a stop next to Laurel, "I truly hate to interrupt this important meeting, however it is -"

"What is it?" Laurel asked, setting ehr glass down and turning to meet his eye. The rest of the room had fallen silent, all eyes on the servant who was clearly growing rather embarrassed at the attention. "What's happened? Are the boys alright?"

"Yes, ma'am, they are fine. Lord Strange is trying to contact you. He's opened a portal in the hall. It seems that there is a new threat to Midgard, and he is in need of your assistance."

"Very well," Laurel nodded, turning back to address her breakfast companions. "I regret having to leave you all early, but this is clearly pressing if I am being interrupted." She stood, careful to push her chair in before glancing over at Loki, who had stood up and was making his way around the table. He took her by the arm, gently leading her into the corner of the room. "I know we talked about this," she began, "but if Stephen is trying to open a portal to talk to me, something's seriously wrong. I hate saying this, but I've got to go."

He had always known that if something happened that required her help, Laurel would go. That was just the kind of person she was. But still, he worried. One mission might turn into more, and before they knew it, she would be spending days to weeks at a time down on Midgard, hiding out in foreign countries and fighting for her life. He voiced none of this, however, since she clearly had to leave. "Be careful, love. And remember, we have the opening of _The Merchant of Venice_ tonight. The Asgardian Theatre Company's been rehearsing for months."

"I wouldn't miss opening night for the world," she assured him with a smile, leaning in to give him a parting kiss. "I'll be back before it's time to go. Don't worry, I'll be there. But you might have to make sure the boys are ready to go and dressed properly."

"Alright. Be careful," he warned her again. "I love you."

"I love you too."

As she took off for the adventure that awaited her, Loki had to sigh, watching her with a bit of reluctance. He hated having to let her go, but he also knew that he couldn't expect her to stay away from the people she cared about, the world she had grown up in, for the rest of her life. Taking his seat again, he turned to the nobleman sitting next to him, who he had been talking to about the flawed Asgardian system of justice. "Now, where were we? I remember saying something about our trials and tribunals."

Several hours later, Loki stood backstage in the Asgardian National Theatre, going over his speech in his head. He'd written it ages ago, before he had been arrested and sent to Midgard. The company had been rehearsing for a year, not knowing what they were going to do without their director, but had come to perfect the Midgardian play. They had begun dissecting it, translating the meaning and coming to understand the Midgardian story as something universal, as something that could be translated and adapted to fit with the lives they had lived. When Loki had returned, he took over once again, speeding things up to bring opening night much closer than had been planned.

Everything had been taken care of. Well, almost everything. The actors were all ready, costumes were on, props were set up. The set had been finished that afternoon, and everyone knew their lines by heart. They would be opening in front of a sold-out house, with the king and the rest of the royal family in attendance. Finn and Jake were even involved, having helped to finish painting the set and putting props together. Loki had made sure they were dressed up and ready, and that they were now sitting in the royal family's box with Thor. they would be shuffled off to bed during the intermission, since it was already getting late, but he felt that it was important that they were there. The crowd had been let in and playbills had been handed out, and someone had already silenced the crowd. A spotlight had been flipped on, and now a stagehand gestured for him to take his place. With a deep breath, Loki stepped out onto the stage, greeted by thunderous applause.

He looked up out over the crowd, towards the royal family's box. Thor was proudly applauding, Finn and Jake standing and clapping along with the crowd. Brunnhilde and some of her Valkyries stood behind them, offering protection for the royal family. Emla, the boys' nanny, sat next to Jake, her opera glasses already perched on her nose. The seat next to Finn was empty, though. Suddenly, it looked like there was a bit of commotion, someone edging through the group of Valkyries that stood guard. Laurel, dressed for the occasion in a green gown, took her seat and began applauding with the rest of the crowd.

With her there, Loki was finally able to begin his speech. "Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Asgardian National Theatre Company's opening night of Shakespeare's _The Merchant of Venice._ While this is a Midgardian story, it is widely regarded as one of the most classic plays in the realm. It is a story of acceptance and of difference, a story that we can all still learn a lot from, even hundreds of years after it was written,and in a different realm. I would like to take a moment to thank all of those who have helped to put this show on, from the actors to the stagehands and everyone working behind the scenes, as well as my own family for their constant support. They have been here supporting this entire process, even when I was unable to be here. Thank you. At this time, make sure any technology you have on you, be it holographic projectors, cellular phones, or other communication devices, are turned off or have been silenced, and please keep in mind that talking during the performance is not permitted. There will be a fifteen-minute intermission after the end of Act I. Thank you all, and enjoy the show."

He left the stage, consulting with a couple of people in hushed tones as the first actors took their places. Moments later, he had was squeezing his way through the armed guards to take a seat next to Laurel. "Good to see you made it," he whispered, giving her a kiss.

"I'm just glad I made it with both of my arms," she whispered back, leaning in to talk directly into his ear. "I'll tell you about that later."

"Shh." Jake leaned forward, looking past Thor to say, "No talking during the performance. You just said it, Dad." Loki laughed to himself, taking Laurel's hand and looking back to the stage, where the show had just begun. It was almost like they were a normal royal famliy, going to see something at the theatre. Almost.

The post-show party lasted well into the night, Laurel and Loki finally making it home around three in the morning. "Well, congratulations. It was a great opening night." Laurel gave a sigh of relief, finally able to take her high heels off. As she tossed her shoes in the closet and headed towards the bathroom to take her makeup off, she added, "I wish we could just live like this. Without me having to run to Earth and jump in any time there's a crisis. I could help train the Valkyries, and you can keep running the Asgardian Arts Department or whatever Thor calls it."

Loki joined her at their twin sinks, reaching for a toothbrush as he reminded her that, "It would mean you retire from being a hero."

"You too," she said, pulling bobby pins out of her hair. "You'd retire from being a hero too. Well, you'd always be a hero, but you wouldn't be out there with the rest of the Avengers. Please, can't we just raise or boys in peace?"

"We both know we can't do that. Not yet. One day, there will be a new group of heroes who take over for us. Perhaps one day soon. But for now, we have to keep working," he told her through a mouth full of toothpaste. "We must keep fighting."

"Well, we can at least try to live somewhat normal, stable lives," Laurel resolved as she started to brush her hair out. "The boys are still young enough that having a routine like that will make a difference. We'll figure this out."

Yawning, Loki agreed. "That we will. But for now, I think we should get some sleep. I have to be up for the matinee tomorrow."


	98. Happy Valentine's Day

" _Loki, what's up?" Laurel had just turned into the hallway from her room, headed for the kitchen. "Come with me. I need a snack, and you look like you could use one too. Oh, and I've got to tell you about this mission that Thor and I were on."_

 _The mission had been a difficult one, and she and Thor had been stuck undercover for a couple of weeks in Bulgaria. It had been especially interesting because Thor was fairly used to Midgard by now, but still would come up with a ton of questions, like why they couldn't get some flavors of Pop Tarts in the middle of Bulgaria. They had been forced to hole up in what seemed like a bunker from World War II, at least according to Steve, who was in a hideout across the city with Rhodey._

 _Without his near constant companion, Loki had moped around the facility, reading and heading to the gym in the middle of the night, when no one else was awake. He hadn't told her, but he slept a lot easier knowing that she was safe within the facility and not out on a mission halfway across the world, where she was constantly in danger. He hadn't admitted anything to her yeet, but he often found his eye wandering from the pages of his books to look up at her, darting back to the text as soon as she noticed him. He smiled more when she was in the room, and he had caught himself wishing that she would come home from a mission to keep him company. This last mission had cemented it - she had been gone for two and a half weeks, and it had been awful. Of course, he never believed he would tell her, since there was no way she would want to even entertain the thought of settling down with a Frost Giant._

 _Laurel had missed him too. It was fun sharing a hideout with Thor, hearing all of his stories from Asgard, and trying to teach him more about Midgard, its technology, and its cultures. But she preferred Loki's quiet company, the constant presence of someone she could depend on to be there, even if it was just to be in the same place every night, waiting with a snack and a cup of tea. She would often lie awake in their bunker late at night, wondering what Loki was up to, wondering if he minded that she had been gone for so long. He had texted her every day, saying good morning and good night, asking how their stakeout was going and whether or not she had gotten too annoyed yet and snapped at his brother. Laying in bed, she would talk to him late into the night, smiling to herself and trying not to let Thor notice._

 _As soon as they had gotten back to the Avengers Facility, had proper showers, and debriefed with the others, she had gone to seek Loki out. Predictably, she had found him in the library, calmly setting his book down and saying hello. But she had absolutely beamed, giving him a hug and taking the god by surprise. It had only been a brief reunion, though, since she was called back by Tony to go over a few more things. "A few more things" turned out to be an hours-long discussion with the others, even though they had gone over a whole lot as soon as they were all back from Bulgaria._

" _Sorry that took so long, by the way," Laurel yawned as she opened the fridge. "Have a taste for anything? I think I'm gonna make cookies or something."_

 _Loki perched on the kitchen counter as she preheated the oven and began searching for a baking sheet. "That sounds fine to me. It's been quiet here without you."_

" _It's always quiet in the library, though. And I know you practically lived there while I was gone, because you're hardly every anywhere else, even when I'm here," she said, pulling out a couple of cups and starting to make tea while she waited for the oven. "Did Peter come by?"_

" _Yes, the Spider-Boy was here. He had Monday off from school, so he spent the day here with Stark. Ah, thank you." She had handed over the first cup of tea, making one for herself next. Smiling to himself as he drank, he realized that she always did that - handing him things first, then taking her own._

" _You're welcome. And that's nice, I know Peter's missed seeing Tony and the lab," Laurel sighed, leaning against the kitchen counter and glancing back at the oven. "Goodness, I'm glad to be back. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how annoying it is to share a room with your brother. I'd wake up to find him cooking the strangest things… I always made us dinner, at least after he tried cooking pasta in marinara sauce instead of water. But I did teach him a lot. Hopefully he won't burn this place down the next time he tries to cook anything."_

 _As she set a tray of cookies in the oven, Loki took another sip of his drink, marveling at the fact that she chose to climb up and sit next to him. He would be even more impressed later on, when she joined him on the sofa, , leaning her head onto his shoulder. "What are you doing?"_

" _Practically dozing off," she yawned rather loudly, Loki looking down the hall to see if anyone was coming their way. "I'm tired, and I really don't have any desire to get up and walk all the way to my room. You're a pretty good pillow. And I trust you."_

 _A few minutes later, she had fallen asleep, Loki staring at her. What was he supposed to do now? He couldn't just leave her there, but he also didn't want Tony to spot them as he stumbled, half-awake, into the kitchen for a midnight snack. There was only one thing he could think of doing. With a snap of his fingers, the two of them sat in his bed, LAurel looking up groggily. "What… where…?"_

" _Ssh, love, I just did not want Stark to see us. Go back to sleep."_

" _Mmm, okay." She closed her eyes again, setting her glasses on the bedside table almost reflexively. As she wound her arm over his stomach, Loki wanted more than anything to reach out and kiss her. But he settled for just kissing the top of her head, closing his eyes and wondering what this meant._

 _Loki was asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes, but the dream he ended up in was not one he wanted to live out. He had walked out of his rooms to find Laurel standing at the end of the hall, engrossed in a discussion with Thor. Both of them were laughing, although he couldn't hear what it was about. As he got closer, though, he heard Thor saying something about him, about how she spent a lot of time with Loki, but that what they had was important. "What you have?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow._

 _As he looked between the two of them, his brother began to explain. "Lady Laurel and I, the bond forged in the middle of battle, the noble friendship of warriors who -"_

" _Stop it," Loki hissed, Laurel turning to give him a look of disapproval. Everyone always chooses him. He was the favorite child, the golden boy, always. And he always will be.I'm not surprised that you've chosen him. You two deserve each other." Rage was the only thing keeping him from noticing the twisting sensation in his stomach, the plummeting feeling of betrayal._

" _Loki, please -"_

" _No, I already know. I've seen your conversations, the furtive little meetings, the -" He didn't get far in his tirade before she had started to cry, turning on her heel and taking off down the hallway, not quite running, but certainly taking quick strides away from him._

" _Now look what you've done," Thor scolded, Loki turning to give him a venomous retort. Before he could say anything, however, he was plucked from the dream, shaken awake by the feeling of Laurel stirring slightly in her sleep._

" _Are you alright?" he whispered, Laurel looking up at him. Oh gods, all he wanted to do was live in that moment together, having her curled up next to him, the warmth of her body radiating through his left side. "Did I wake you?"_

" _Mhm. It wasn't you, it was this weird dream I had," she yawned. "Do you mind if I stay here?"_

 _Please. Please stay here. Loki would have gladly asked her to stay, but had to just nod, pretending that he wasn't wishing for her to do this every day, after every difficult mission. "You're more than welcome to stay here. Now go back to sleep."_

" _I'm sorry if I woke you up. It's just… it's Valentine's day. It's a silly Midgardian holiday, I think I've told you about it before. But it reminds me of all of the awful people… never mind, I don't know why I'm bothering you with this. I just had a bad dream about someone I used to know, someone I'm glad I don't know any more. Goodnight, Loki."_

" _It's alright. We can spend the rest of the day together, and you will not have to think about whomever it was. They are not worthy of you anyway, if they made you detest them that much. Goodnight, love."_

" _What did you just say?_

" _Goodnight, Laurel." As she dozed off again, he sighed, wishing he could tell her so much, Wishing that he could confess everything, and that it wouldn't change anything. But it would, no matter how she reacted. Something would change, and the possibility of it terrified him. When he was sure that she was fully asleep, he closed his eyes, adding a final, "Goodnight, love. Happy Valentine's day I hope I can one day make you happier than that nightmare of a human ever did."_


	99. Who are You?

A.N.: Some people in my office were telling a story about their pets and I found out this one lady has a cat named Loki Shook? Shook.

* * *

It had been ages since Laurel went to Midgard, at least according to Loki. In reality, it had only been a few hours. But when Stephen Strange opened a portal back to Asgard, he knew something had happened. Strange came through first, Steve Rogers following him, supporting Laurel as best he could. He was still in his Captain America uniform, Laurel also in her battle clothes. Strange too was dressed for battle. All three of them looked rather beat up, but Laurel was the first, by far. "Get your healers," Strange commanded, putting Laurel's free arm over his shoulder. "She threw up a force field, trying to stop a grenade blast. She saved everyone else, but the majority of the shockwave hit her."

"Oh gods," Loki breathed, tearing out of the room and frantically calling for help. He came back with a group of healers, who scooped Laurel up and took her away in seconds, leaving him with Stephen Strange and Steve Rogers, both of whom still looked to be in shock. Personally, Loki wasn't fond of either one of them. Rogers he could tolerate, but Strange he only talked to for Laurel's sake. He had half a mind to kick them out of the palace, but he knew that they would want to stick around. They were Laurel's friends, after all. So he offered them a seat and sent a servant to get them something to drink. "Tell me everything," Loki pressed, taking a seat across from the supersoldier and the second-rate magician.

It turned out that Strange hadn't been there at all, but Rogers had come to him for help. They were far from the Sanctum, fighting in the middle of Tibet, when they were ambushed in the mountains. Laurel had thrown a force field around their group, but dove to push a child out of the way of the blast, trying to wrap herself in a forcefield at the same time. She hadn't been able to manage both, and had been knocked aside by the force of the blast, landing right on the edge of her own force field, which flung her even further away. They had all gotten out alive, and made it to Kamar Taj, where Strange just happened to be visiting and instructing a new group of recruits. "I immediately knew it was not something we could treat back on Earth. I could have tried, with magic, but the healers on Asgard are far better," Strange admitted with a sigh.

Loki smiled to himself, proud that he was able to get Strange to admit his failings, but this was all just a mask he put up to prevent them from seeing how worried he truly was. He longed to go stand outside of the door, pace up and down the hall, anything that would bring him closer to where the healers were doing their work. If they weren't going to be able to treat her on Midgard, it must have been something terribly damaging.

It took a long time, but finally,one of the healers came to find them, declaring that Laurel would be alright. Strange and Rogers made Loki promise to call them when Laurel woke up, heading back to Midgard to tell the others that she would be fine with time. Loki said a few hurried goodbyes. As soon as they were gone, he walked as quickly as he could, pushing past healers, servants, and guards to reach his quarters, where he took a seat next to the bed.

With her eyes closed, Laurel looked like she was just asleep, resting after a long and tiring mission on Midgard. All of her superficial wounds had been cleaned and patched up with Asgardian magic, most of them nearly invisible. The rest were rapidly healing, knitting themselves back together before his eyes. But she had been knocked out by the sheer force of the blast, which had propelled her right into her own shield, and none of the healers knew when she would wake up. So all he could do was wait.

Later in the evening, Thor came to check on her, taking a seat next to his brother. "She will wake up soon," he declared confidently, even though he had no idea how long it would take. "She's always been strong. And she is a goddess, brother. She should be alright." Loki just nodded, holding his wife's hand. He couldn't tear his eyes from her face, willing her to wake up sooner rather than later.

"She will," Loki repeated absentmindedly, the words hardly registering as he silently prayed for her to open her eyes. "She will."

Thor continued to talk, but the words just washed over his brother. He knew that Loki wasn't paying attention, but giving him some sort of background noise was better than leaving him to stew in silence, he figured. So Thor kept talking, telling him stories of battles that he and Laurel had fought in, of how she had always been such a hero. He told him of how she had missed him terribly while he had been exiled, and how she constantly wanted to check in. How she had worked tirelessly to get him back. She had never given up, much to Thor's annoyance. But it had all worked out in the end.

Now Thor worried, not only for her, but for his brother and their children. The healers had come to him when they were done, expressing their concern for the princess. She had been injured in battle, they had said, and they had no way of telling when she would wake up. Thor had been the one to make sure Jake and Finn had gotten to bed, and the one to decide that the country didn't need to know about Laurel just yet. Instead, they would continue on like normal, whoe everyone quickly tried to put together a plan to help her. And now he sat here, keeping his brother company because it was all he could do to hep. He wasn't a magician or a healer. Much of his power lie in brute strength, and right now, none of it would help. So he did what he could, keeping Loki company while he waited for his wife to wake up.

Hours later, Thor finally left, heading to bed and resolving to come back early in the morning. Loki sighed, dimming the lights and scooting his chair closer to the bed. He held onto Laurel's hand, laying his upper half on the mattress while he remained in his chair. It wasn't a very comfortable position to lay in, but he wanted to be able to wake up easily, just in case Laurel woke up while he was asleep. It took a while, but he fell into a dreamless sleep as the clock ticked later and later.

It seemed like just an instant later when he felt something moving. Loki bolted up to see Laurel gingerly trying to sit up, reaching for her glasses. "What the hell happened?"

"You saved a lot of lives," Loki beamed, leaning forward to kiss her on the forehead. "Be careful, love, you've been out for quite a while. You've got to rest." As she put her glasses on, Laurel registered where she was. Bed. Good, being in bed is good. She looked around the room, taking everything in like she had never seen it before. How had she gotten there? Who brought her all this way? She looked back to Loki, who looked at her a bit strangely. He could tell that something was off. "What's wrong, love? Are you in pain?"

"I… this sounds like a really crazy question, but… who are you?"

It felt like he was being crushed, being pressed to death under a massive stone. The weight in his chest was unlike anything he had ever felt. "Laurel, I…" He took a deep breath, calmly telling her, "My name is Loki. I'm your husband."

"Husband? Really?" She looked down at her left hand, noticing the ring for the first time. "For how long?"

"Years. Love, do you even know who you are?"

"I'm an Avenger. I can do magic, look," she answered, staring at the glimmering ring on her finger as she conjured a ball of light and made it disappear again. Hesitantly, she twisted her ring, thinking aloud. "I used to work in this facility in Sokovia, a facility that did cruel experiments on children. But I left, and I became an Avenger after studying the Mystic Arts. I was in this battle, and… we're not on Earth, are we?"

"No. This is Asgard. We live on Asgard. Well, mostly," he told her, wishing he could run into the hall and scream at someone, at anyone. How could she have forgotten him? "Do you not remember anything about me?"

As her eyebrows knit together, Laurel told him that, "You were imprisoned by the Avengers, but I don't think… I don't think I thought you were a bad guy. You were pretty nice, from what I remember. I… I don't know," she sighed, her eyes starting to tear up. "If we're married, I want to remember. I must love you immensely, but… I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, love." Loki stood, letting go of her hand. "I'll be right back with some tea and something for you to eat, and then… well, I can try telling you stories and seeing if you can remember anything. If anything, I'll just have to make you fall in love with me again." Hesitantly, he reached out and kissed her forehead before heading into the hall.

As soon as the door closed, he sunk to the ground, his head in his hands. How could she have forgotten everything? All of the things they had faced, all of the problems and the challenges that they had overcome? Fighting for each other, and crossing realms and universes to find each other? Sacrificing so much for the generally happy little life that they had had? All of the good times, all of the tears, and all of the ardent passion that had marked their years of marriage, and had been brewing even before then? How had she forgotten everything?

Laurel smiled as the door closed, thinking that he seemed sweet. She had done well, but somehow, she had forgotten him. She had a thousand burning questions, of course. They had met through the Avengers, right? How long had they known each other? How had he proposed? Did they have any pets? Children? How had they come on live on Asgard? What did they do with their lives? And, most importantly, would she ever come to love him again, like she so clearly had before?


	100. Memory

For weeks, Loki sat up late at night, telling Laurel stories and showing his wife animated holograms of his memories. He gave her the piles of journals that she had stashed away on Asgard, hoping that something in one of them would stir her memory, but it didn't seem like anything was registering. She knew that all of these things were things that she had done, but it didn't feel like they were her memories. Nothing felt quite right.

She had warmed up to the boys rapidly. Loki had brought them in and told them to be quiet, that "Mum is very sick, but she would like to see you." They had talked with her for a while, Laurel slowly remembering flashes of them as babies, of playing with them in vast, beautiful gardens that she was yet to see. They didn't spend much time with her, but as she got better, they would play and have lunches together, slowly starting to integrate into her life again. At first, she had to pretend that she knew a lot more about them than she remembered, but slowly, things started to come back to her. Loki watched them proudly, realizing then how much the boys had grown up in the last few years. But it still left him with a sinking feeling in his chest, since she had taken to them so well, but still hadn't remembered much about him yet.

Thor she remembered. They had fought side-by-side, and shared many stories, Thor trying to bring back as many of her memories as he could. Loki would often find them laughing together, talking about their battles or their colleagues, and reminiscing. Thor had filled her in on a lot - many things about Asgard, about the fact that she was both a goddess and the master of an Infinity Stone, and about the struggles that had brought them there.

Thor told her about Loki, about how he had watched them get to know each other and fall in love, but she still didn't feel connected to the memories he'd told her about. Laurel would stay up late, standing on the balcony and looking out at the stars, wondering who this man was that she was sharing her life with. From her journals, he had made her laugh and was a proper gentleman in public, but could be terribly devious when he wanted to be. She loved (had loved?) him deeply, and had been torn up every time she had nearly lost him. She would turn and look at him, trying to imagine what life had been like with the Crown Prince of Asgard.

Loki slept on the sofa in the living room of their quarters, constantly tossing and turning as he tried to come to terms with the fact that Laurel might never remember him. He would sit up at night, watching her stare at the stars from the balcony. Their stars. Both of them had always loved the stars, and had always made a point to mention that they could see the same stars no matter where they were. He longed to reach out to her, but he also worried that anything he did might drive her away.

"Laurel?" He stepped out onto the balcony, the woman turning to look at him. "Do you remember the stars?"

"They're beautiful from here," she sighed, looking up at the heavens as he took his place by her side. "You can see a whole lot from the palace. Did we do this all the time?"

"We did," he nodded, glancing over at her. She was just as beautiful as the day he had met her, as the day they had gotten married, and as every day in between. The moonlight made her glow a bit, shining off of the red hair that he had loved winding his hands through. "Laurel?"

"Hmm?"

"May I hold your hand?"

She smiled a bit at how polite he was being, treading carefully because he didn't want to even risk messing anything up between them. "Of course." Taking his hand, she turned to look at the man who called himself her husband. "I know I say this a lot, but I'm sorry. I really wish I remembered more."

Loki nodded, noticing that she hadn't taken off her wedding ring. There was certainly hope. This was certainly a sign that she was trying to salvage what memories she had, patching together the story of their relationship as best she could. He chose his next words carefully. "It's alright, love. I have an idea, though, if you'd be willing to try it."

"What is it?" she asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.

"Dance with me."

"What?" She looked at him like he was mad, like he had suggested they jump off of the balcony into the fountain below. "How is that going to help anything?"

"We used to do this all the time," he assured her, Laurel hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder, giving him permission to put a hand on her hip. Slowly, the pair began to waltz in the small space of their balcony, Loki telling her that, "The first time I realized how much I loved you… well, one of the first times, we were at a gala that Tony Stark had thrown for his foundation. You insisted that I come with you, no matter how much I detested the idea. But we went, and we danced, and we had fun. Then there was someone who decided to say something horrible about me, and you stared her down. You stared her and all of the others like her down, and told them they should go back to their party because putting someone down like that isn't worth it. We ended up sitting on the stairs outside, talking while we waited for our limousine back to the Avengers Facility. That was when it hit me, that you were a whole lot different from the others. I had known it before, but it really hit me then, and it broke my heart knowing that you would probably never love me back. But you did, no matter what I had done in the past. You made me the luckiest person in the universe, and even if I never hear you say it again, I always will be the luckiest person in the universe, because I've been able to spend part of my life with you."

Laurel had cried a lot in the previous few weeks, but this made her cry even more. Tears dripping down her cheeks, she stopped dead, simply telling him that, "I'm sorry, Loki. I'm more sorry than I've ever been. I want to remember you. I want to remember everything. Sometimes things come back to me, but none of it feels right and… I'm sorry."

Reaching forward to wipe away the tears that tracked down her cheeks, Loki realized that it was the first time he had touched her in two, nearly three months. Sure, he had held her hand, but he had hardly done more than that in ages. Without thinking, he took her face in his hands, leaning in to kiss her like he had longed to do for what seemed like forever now. "Oh gods, I'm sorry." He let go and stepped back quickly, apologizing again. "I'll… I'll go inside now. I'm sorry, Laurel, I -"

"It's alright." She stepped forward, closing the distance between them again. As she reached up to kiss him, Loki felt the pain in his heart melt away, even if it was just for a few seconds. "I trust you. You've hardly left my side, but you've given me my space at the same time. I see you sitting there, watching while I read through my piles of journals. You try to look like you're pouring over your scripts and working on things for the theatre, but I know you spend half of that time watching me. Loki, I wish I could remember… but I do know you're a good person."

Loki tried to break away, telling her that, "Laurel, if I keep kissing you, I'm not going to want to stop. I already don't want to stop, but I respect the fact that -"

"Don't." She wound her hand into his hair, pulling him in again. "Don't stop kissing me if you don't want to."

"You're sure?" he breathed, his voice growing lower.

She nodded, gently biting his lip. "I don't remember marrying you. I don't remember falling in love with you. I want to. I want to fall in love with you again. But I have no problem realizing how attractive you are, my dear prince. Besides, maybe this will help."

"I just don't want you to regret it."

"I won't."

"You're sure?" he asked again, Laurel kissing him again in response.

The moonlight looked different when it was streaming in through their windows. Laurel thought it made Loki look like he was made of marble, even though he was much warmer, much softer, much more human than the stony persona he usually had on in public. Loki thought it made her look almost ethereal, like something he couldn't believe was there, someone he couldn't believe he was lucky enough to be lying next to. "Thank you." She sat up a bit, propping herself up on her elbows to look at him. "Loki, I… I should be honest. I care about you. I'm incredibly thankful for you. Most people wouldn't have been this patient, or stuck around for this long. I really do care about you. I find myself waking up and wondering what you're doing, hoping you're having a good day. I want so much to love you like I did back then, and I might be starting to. It'll take some time, but I think I'm going to."

Loki smiled, sitting up to kiss her. "Well, that is very good to hear," he smiled. "Now, would you like me to go so you can get some sleep?"

"No, if you don't mind, I think I'd like you to stay here." She lay down next to him, draping her arm over his exposed stomach. Loki responded by putting his arm around her, kissing the top of her head. "I like having you here. I like having you near me, but I certainly like having you next to me even more." She was silent for a minute before adding, "You have nightmares, don't you? I can hear you sometimes, crying out in your sleep. You fell off the sofa once, from a particularly bad one."

He sighed, admitting that she was right. "They're part of me going to sleep. I expect them now, but it certainly doesn't make them any easier to deal with. You… you made them a lot better. Not the dreams themselves, but having you here was a lot more comforting than waking up to see the living room table in front of me."

"Then you should definitely stay here," Laurel offered, intertwining one of her legs with his. "And probably tomorrow night too. And the night after that. And the one after that one… I like having you here, Loki."

In a very small voice, he thanked her, adding, "I love you, Laurel."

"I think… I think I love you too, Loki." As she snuggled closer to him, Loki swallowed the lump in his throat, burying his face in her hair so she wouldn't notice the tears in his eyes. He had his wife back. Not back completely, but this was a start. They still had a long, long road ahead of them. He would have to try to relay every moment of the last decade and a half, even the painful ones. But they would get there eventually, he was sure of it. This was just the start.

Loki lay awake for a while, watching as Laurel started to doze off. Her breathing slowed down a bit, becoming perfectly even as she began to dream. He closed his eyes, finally drifting off to sleep with a smile on his face, beyond thankful for the woman who lay next to him.

* * *

A.N.: Woo, 100 chapters! I can't believe I've written the equivalent of a novel...


	101. Marry Me

Loki had dreamt about Laurel forgetting him, forgetting everything in their lives as they knew it. As he sat up in bed, though, he realized that this nightmare was real, just a continuation of his normal, waking life, the life that he vigorously tried to deny but was confronted with every time he returned to their chambers or ran into ehr at a meeting or just in the halls of the palace. There was no escaping this one. He looked over to where Laurel was still asleep, reaching out for him even in the middle of whatever she was peacefully dreaming about. She had allowed him to sleep next to her for a little while now, as things started to come back to her and as he continued in his quest to win her over. He truly believed that he was slowly winning her over, making her fall for him all over again, but it was still difficult when she couldn't remember something that he could see perfectly.

"Are you awake?" she mumbled, rolling over to look at him in the light of the moon, Loki nodding in response. "Loki?"

"Yeah," he answered, propping himself up on his elbow to look at her. "What's wrong?"

"I don't quite know," Laurel admitted, pushing her hair out of her eyes as she drank in the sight of him, covered in the silvery light that streamed in from their balcony. _Past Laurel did well. Really well. He looks like he's made of marble. Really, he's incredible._ She smiled to herself a bit, saying, "Something told me I had to wake up because you were awake."

He reached out and gave her a gentle kiss, telling her that, "You used to do that a lot. You had this sense, this sense of when I was having a horrible dream, or just when something wasn't right. You would wake up right before I did, and you… you made the nightmares a little bit better. I have no idea how, but you just knew."

"Were you having a bad dream this time?"

Loki nodded, Laurel pulling him closer, kissing him in an attempt at an apology for the images that haunted him nightly. She knew that she was the cause of some of them, even though he never admitted it and never would. "Thank you," he sighed, giving her a lazy half-smile. "I hope your dreams were better than mine."

"I think I've started dreaming about what our lives were like, but I don't know if they're all real or not," she fretted, "especially the ones about long ago, when we first met. It's easier remembering things that happened more recently. I just had this dream… you were standing there, talking to me, and you were so worried about whether or not one of the boys - it must have been Finn, since he's the oldest - would be blue or not. You were so worried, and… he wasn't blue for a while, but then we discovered he could change colors if he wanted to. We went out in the snow when he was little, and he turned light blue and you were - not devastated, but worried for sure. He's learned to control it since then, and so did Jake. Right?"

"Right," Loki confirmed. "You know you can ask me about them, if you don't know if these memories are real or not." He gave her another kiss, Laurel pursing her lips in mock-annoyance. "What's wrong, love?"

"You're so careful," she said, not wanting to sound like she was complaining. "You're… well, you're not treating me like a doll, but it seems like you're walking on eggshells sometimes, trying not to worry me or scare me or I don't know what. I don't mind it, but you're so gentle, so careful about everything you do or say to me… like any instant I'll break."

Loki smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Would you like me to be less gentle?"

"If I remember right, you're very good at that," Laurel teased, pulling him on top of her. "You might have to refresh my memory again, though."

In the morning, the two of them sat in on a Security Council meeting with Thor Brunnhilde, Heimdall, and a few others. While Laurel hadn't been cleared to fully participate in the Security Council meetings yet, she was allowed to sit and listen, offering her input on some matters and being forced to sit out on others. She was slowly being reintroduced to all of her royal duties, remembering some things and not having the slightest idea about others, but she took to learning about them with gusto. Every night, she would sit up and read reports on Asgard that she had pulled from the library earlier in the day, about anything and everything. She stacked law books and trade rule outlines and tax reports on the living room table, reading through them at a steady pace as the boys did their homework and got ready for bed. Muffin the cat would join her sometimes, keeping her company if Loki was out at a theatre rehearsal. If he was home, he would sit beside her and read or help the kids with their homework.

"What's tonight's homework?" he asked, coming back late one evening to find Laurel buried in some sort of archaic-looking treatise. He dropped an annotated copy of the latest script he was working on with the Asgardian National Theatre Company on the table, pausing to stretch a bit. "Gods, I'm exhausted."

Laurel held up the cover of her book, not bothering to put her glasses back on or look up from her reading as she addressed him. "It's a compilation of laws and cases and disputes that happened under Odin, for the last five hundred years. They go by five hundred year blocks, and I've read up to the 1700s, Midgardian time. It really is interesting to watch him evolve hsi opinions on some things. I bet you'll be mentioned in here later on. The kids are already asleep, by the way. We were going to wait for you, but they both fell asleep a while ago, so I brought them to bed and tucked them in."

"Hmm, I'll go say goodnight to them, and then I think it's time for you to take a break. Let's go outside," he proposed, heading in the direction of the kids' room as Laurel looked around for a bookmark.

As the two of them stood on the balcony together, Laurel realized how lucky she had been, how lucky she still was. She had a husband who cared for her and two wonderful children, a great brother-in-law, and an entire realm that would bow to her if she wanted. They had a sweet cat that loved following them around, and a palace that many people could only dream about living in. But there was still something missing, the sense of knowing exactly who she was and what she meant in time and space. "Loki?"

"Hmm?"

Taking a deep breath, Laurel proposed something that had been on her mind all day. "I can read people's thoughts and manipulate them to an extent," she began, "and I think… if you let me read some of your memories, let me see them the way you saw them, well, it might be able to help me."

It took him a moment to answer, Loki thinking back to a night much like this one, but a million miles away in another realm, and what seemed like another life. "You did that once before, and you didn't like what you saw," he responded tersely, giving her a bit of a frown. "You… you somehow sped through my memory until you got back to the dungeons and Odin and Asgard… I don't think you would want to go through all of that again. I'm sorry you had to go through it once. Once was bad enough."

Laurel nodded, not in any mood to object now. She could work on it all later, when she was more awake and when hundreds of years of case law wasn't floating through her head. "Alright. I'm sure more of it will come back with time… I keep trying to think of things, to bring them back, but I'm not getting too far with all of the journals and the books. Thor's been helpful. He's got a ton of pictures from back at the Avengers Facility. I just wish I could remember it all. Something more than I've got now."

"Love, my I borrow your ring?" Laurel raised an eyebrow, looking down at her left hand. The ring had been Frigga's, that much she knew. "Please, may I just see it for a moment?"

She wiggled the ring off of her finger and passed it over, realizing now that she hadn't taken it off, even in the first few days when she went through the entire process of coming to terms with having a husband at all, let alone having married a trickster god, the Crown Prince of Asgard. "I know, I need to polish it. I've just been kind of preoccupied, you know? What are you-"

Loki had knelt down, holding up the ring again, like he had many years before. It was much different this time around. He was a lot less nervous - not completely at ease, but it was a lot better than last time. He at least didn't feel like he was going to throw up. He hadn't been meditating on this for days. No, this was a spur-of-the-moment idea that he had had, hopefully one that would pay off. "Laurel, love, will you marry me?"

"We're already married," she laughed. "I can't marry you again."

"I know, but you woke up like this. You didn't remember all of how you came to be married to me, so I want to know - will you marry me again, of your own choosing, with your own, current mind? Will you marry me, love? Again?"

Although she had no time to think about it, and hadn't been tipped off some days earlier like the last time (maybe? She had a feeling, but she couldn't be certain), she already knew her answer. Loki had been by her side through this whole ordeal, winning her over for months. He had been patient and explained a million little things, told her stories and shared all of the photos they had taken together, trying to get her to remember. He had danced with her and brought he flowers and kept her company when she was sick. He made her smile, he made her laugh, and he was the person she wanted to be with every day. She loved him, like she had loved him before. It was different, now, but still the same. "Yes, of course."

As the two of them embraced, Loki couldn't help but smile. He too thought that everything had changed, and yet nothing had changed at all.


	102. Tell the World

_Thanos crushed the Tesseract in one smooth movement, Laurel jumping a bit as she heard the crunch of the carefully-crafted glass that separated the raw power of the stone from the rest of the universe. Watching in abject horror, all Laurel could do was stare as he placed the stone in his gauntlet, suddenly becoming the most powerful being in the universe._ _Rightfully satisfied that he was now able to wield two Infinity Stones at once, he turned to his subordinates, commanding them to hunt down more of the stones as he put an end to the Asgardians. "There are two more stones on Earth. Find them, my children, and bring them to me on Titan."_

 _Holding onto Loki for dear life and keeping her gaze fixed on Thanos, Laurel could only whisper, "Please don't do anything stupid." She tried her best to keep her lips from moving, but couldn't bring herself to jump into his mind and talk to him that way. Most of her energy was focused on tracking Thanos' every move, anticipating what he was going to do and planning how she would react if he decided to lunge at them. "Please. I love you."_

" _Father, we will not fail you." The closest of Thanos' minions bowed in reverence, Thanos nodding and sending him on his way to destroy part of the Earth in a mad play for power._

" _I love you," Loki whispered back, suddenly letting go of her hand and taking a few steps forward, Thanos wheeling around to glare at him. Laurel remained silent as he spoke, praying that he hadn't misjudged the situation and become overwhelmed by overconfidence. Sure, he had a silver tongue, but that wasn't going to be enough to save him if it was all he was banking on._ _"If I might interject… If you're going to Earth, you might want a guide. I do have a bit of experience in that arena."_

 _Thanos would have laughed if he hadn't taken it as such an offense. "If you consider failure experience," he retorted, nearly scoffing at the puny god in front of him. He was more than a titan now - he was an equal, if not far more powerful, than the gods he had trapped on this ship. He was the most powerful being in the universe, and he would not let anyone tell him otherwise._

 _"I consider experience experience," Loki answered smoothly, stepping closer than ever to the Titan as he gambled with his fate more and more. Laurel had to physically bite her lip to prevent herself from yelling, pleading with him to stop. Loki was clearly playing with fire, and he was convinced he could outsmart it. But there was no outsmarting such a massive conflagration. "Almighty Thanos, I, Loki, Prince of Asgard, Odinson, the rightful King of Jotunheim, God of mischief, hereby pledge to you my undying fidelity." He began to bow, but at the last minute, Loki lunged forward with a dagger drawn._

 _But Thanos was too fast. He had been expecting it from the trickster god. He seized Loki violently by the neck, the dagger clattering to the ground as he was lifted off of his feet. "'Undying'? You should choose your words more carefully."_

 _"No!" Laurel tried to rush forward, only to be stopped in her tracks by a force field that one of Thanos' Order had suspended her in, keeping her powerless no matter how much she struggled. She couldn't do anything but watch as Loki choked, unable to do anything but concentrate on fighting to breathe._

 _Thor gave a muffled cry from where he had been bound, Laurel desperately glancing at him, knowing neither of them could help. In that moment, they were completely powerless. Even with their powers, they were no match for what stood before them. Nothing that they could do would have helped, even if they hadn't been bound._

 _The outrage in her voice turned to agony as she met Loki's bloodshot eyes. She could feel the tears tracking down her cheeks, but there was no way she would break her eye contact, not when he was dying and she was the only small comfort he had on the desolated ship. Those poor eyes had seen so much, been through so much. Torture. She didn't know how she knew it, but he had been tortured like that before. He had been brought to the brink of death and pulled back several times before. "No, please, don't -"_

 _"You … will never be… a god," Loki choked out, Thanos smiling as a crunch and a sickening snapping sound echoed across the otherwise eerily silent room._

Laurel bolted up in bed so abruptly that it woke Loki up. "Love?"

"You're okay." She breathed a sigh of relief as he wound his arms around her, kissing her cheek. "Gods, Loki, you're okay…. I thought... thanks goodness you're okay."

"Of course I'm okay. I've been asleep this whole time. Nothing could hurt me here, not with you. What's wrong, love?"

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down and come back to reality, even though her thoughts were still suspended in the dream. "I saw you die. I remembered… I remembered a lot more. Not everything, but a hell of a lot. Thanos, and all of those scars you have and… I don't know if half of what I remember is real, Loki."

In that moment, he made a decision. With her natural abilities and his magic, they could easily read each other's minds all they wanted, but long ago, they had agreed never to invade the others' thoughts without their permission, unless they had to have a conversation where they couldn't actually talk. Like if they were standing in front of Thanos or were across the battlefield from each other and needed to share a warning. But now… "Laurel, do you really want to know everything? The good and the bad? All of it?"

"Yes." This was no question. She had thought about it for a while, and had been waiting for an opportunity to convince Loki of how good her plan was. It wouldn't be fun, but it would bring a lot back, a lot that she didn't even know she had forgotten.

Loki, for hi part, had been thinking about this for a while too. Surely it would help her, no matter what the process brought back that he would rather forget. "You might not like me when you're through with all of them, but if you want some memories… you may have them."

She didn't have to touch him for it to work, but she took his face in her hands, leaning closer so their foreheads touched. Loki closed his eyes, feeling her rifle through his memories like she was going through files. He saw only short glimpses of each one, but knew that she had suspended time a bit, taking her time to go through everything. This time, she didn't cry. He couldn't feel any tears dripping down onto his skin, and Laurel was silent as she extended her magic. She didn't recoil, instead holding onto him tenderly, knowing that she would be dredging up bad memories that he had tried to push out of his mind for ages.

It seemed like hours later when she finally sat back in bed, looking at him with sad eyes. "I remember everything. I've seen a lot more than I was in your life for, but… I remember looking through those memories before. The stories and the violence of it all, how I was a mess the first time I learned about all of them. Loki, I…"

"It's okay, love. Things are a lot better now that I have you," he promised, holding her tightly. "I still dream of those horrible things sometimes, but you always make things better. You always have."

"If I've seen all of our lives, does this mean I remember everything?"

"A bit philosophical for the middle of the night, but I guess that's one of the things the middle of the night is for," Loki smiled. "If you think it means you remember everything, then you do."

Laurel sighed, not content with his answer. But still, she had to agree. What was memory, really? "I remembered a ltot about our wedding a few days ago, you know," she told him, thinking of Valhalla and the elaborate ceremony they had had in front of generations fo Asgardian nobles and the royal family. "I wish… Loki, I have an idea. It might sound crazy at first, but -"

"You know I'm always down for a crazy idea," Loki grinned, encouraging ehr to lay out her plan. In the end, it was nothing like his crazy ideas, but it was something novel for sure.

Only hours later, they stood in front of Thor, Brunnhilde, Heimdall, and a smattering of nobles that they had been forced to invite to smooth things over. The boys were there too, dressed up and curious about what they were watching. They had been to weddings before, of course, but nothing like this. Just outside the palace, hundreds of Asgardians had gathered for an official proclamation that would come later in the day. They had heard rumors from the servants and the guards, and had assembled in anticipation. The town square was buzzing with excitement, rumors flying about what it could be. Was there going to be another prince or princess? Would they have a new queen soon? Were they going to war again? No one knew, and yet everyone had a theory.

Inside the palace, though, everything was a lot more calm and orderly. Thor stood a step above his brother and sister-in-law, reading out a very dry, official-sounding script for the renewal of their vows. But after the ceremonial piece had been done, they joined hands, Loki making a golden thread appear, snaking around their hands and binding them together in the traditional handfasting ceremony of the ancient Norse, which had actually been started by the Asgardians.

It was a beautiful little ceremony, one that Loki had long enjoyed watching and loved being a part of the first time around. This time around was no different, just with over a decade of marriage under their belts. When their vows had finally been read and the thread around their hands dissolved, Loki leaned in to kiss his lovely wife for what felt like the first time. As the crowd applauded, the two of them could see nothing but each other. "Loki, I love you," Laurel whispered, pulling him into a hug as the crowd kept clapping. "Let's go tell the world."


	103. A New Chapter

It had been several years since Thanos posed a threat to the universe, but there were still always going to be challenges to the casual chaotic order of everything. There would always be someone new coming to power who threatened the safety of the universe, and the Avengers and their allies would always be ready.

Eventually the older Avengers would settle down and retire, starting their own families and splitting off from the group. First Peter would take over after Tony and Pepper's first child was born, and then Finn, leading the Avengers team through changes and challenges. They would recruit new members too, bringing in talented individuals with brilliant minds or incredible powers.

The Guardians continued to adventure around space, keeping things safe outside of Midgard. They would touch down on Earth to check in or when there was something so dangerous that the Avengers needed their help, and they stopped to visit Asgard on occasion. Mostly, though, they spent their time defending planets that didn't have their own forces, people who couldn't defend themselves.

One by one, the original Avengers began to retire. Clint was the first to go, already having a family and a place to settle down in. He had had one foot out the door for a while, but was glad to finally be able to spend more time with his family. Aunt Natasha and Uncle Steve were never far away, finding a place only a few miles down the road. While Steve enjoyed his Captain America fame, Nat faded into relative obscurity, just like she wanted. She started a ballet studio for underprivileged kids, branching out to teach in orphanages and making sure that the children there were treated with as much kindness as possible.

Dr. (x 7) Bruce Banner would go on to win multiple Nobel Prizes, some of them on his own and some of them in conjunction with (now an honorary doctor many times over) Tony Stark. The mysteries of the universe that he was able to unlock saved thousands of lives and sparked some of the creative inventions pioneered in Wakanda, where Princess Shuri spearheaded one of the world's leading research facilities and King T'Challa ensured peace throughout the country.

Stephen Strange, though never able to pioneer medical advancements like he had in the old days, went on to train dozens of classes of Masters of the Mystic Arts with Wong, opening up the Sanctum to anyone who wanted to learn and possessed enough talent to be trained. Laurel would help when she could, but her duties on Asgard often kept her away from the Sanctum. Everyone loved when she would come in to teach guest lessons, though, since she taught basic Asgardian magic too. Eventually, Wanda would come to live and teach at the Sanctum too, since her powers drew on forces similar to what the Masters used.

As for Asgard, Thor ruled for ages with his trusted councillors by his side. The entire realm went into mourning when he was killed in battle, after an ambush. He, Loki, and Laurel had been fighting side-by-side to liberate a planet that had been taken over by rogue forces that the Guardians were chasing. Not all of them made it. With great reluctance, Loki took up the crown. Hundreds of years earlier, he would have given a whole lot for it. But now all he wanted was to have his brother back. True enough, they could visit Valhalla when they wanted to, but things would never be the same.

The threats to the universe never stopped. Even when they got older, even when people were lost in battle, the Avengers and their allies knew that there would be another generation of heroes, first one led by Peter Parker and then another led by the Lokisons. They would become the next generations of heroes to guide the universe, and, eventually, to lead Asgard. While the threats never stopped, neither did the brave people who stepped up to face the new challenges that awaited them.

As for Loki and Laurel, they had their disagreements. They had their fights. But in the end, they would always come back to each other. They would always be there for each other, through the nightmares and the storms that came for them, and one day, they would rule Valhalla together, after decades of ruling Asgard.

It was many years in the future when it happened. Laurel was older than any Midgardian had ever been, but her status as a goddess helped her to age more like an Asgardian. It didn't prevent her from getting sick, though, and she had been afflicted with a terrible Midgardian illness for a long time. The doctors and the healers and the magic weren't much help, even though they could usually overcome anything.

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon when Jake and Finn came to visit her, Loki guiding them into the room gently an explaining that she didn't have long now. He had already told them what he would do when the time came, what would happen. Like he and Thor had been when Odin died, they would never be fully prepared for it, though. When both of them were gone, Finn, as the oldest, would take over the throne of Asgard from Loki, who had inherited it from his brother some years before when Thor had been defeated in a crushing battle, sacrificing himself to save an entire planet. Jake was to become his second-in-command, the leader of a band of sorcerers that Loki had been training to defend the realm and the head of all Asgardian defenses. He would also inherit the Death Stone from his mother, as the more skilled magician of the two.

They approached with trepidation, taking their mother's hands and receiving her blessing, Loki standing behind his sons and watching his wife, trying to hold back tears as she spoke in a weak voice. Finally, she reached up and unclasped the necklace that hadn't left her for thousands of years. "It is time for you to have this," she told Jake, gently handing it over. "Keep it safe. The power to save or destroy everything you've worked so hard to protect is in your hands. It will also give you the power to travel to Valhalla, but do not use it too much. It can change you. It changed me."

"I will, Mom."

"My boys… your father and I love you more than you will ever know. We know you will do wonderfully. Remember, even the wisest of kings doubt themselves, and even the best sorcerers' spells will fail at times. But you can always fix things. There is always another chance, there is always a way. I love you, boys." She hugged and kissed each of them, Loki walking them out of the room and into the hall. He remained there for a few minutes, talking to them and hugging his children before sending them off. They had much to do now. Things were about to change, and they needed to let Asgard know, even though the entire realm was waiting with baited breath to see if the queen would recover.

"My love," he sighed, sitting down on the side of the bed as gently as he could. It hurt him to see her in pain, to know what was to happen. To know that those had been her goodbyes to her boys. "My Laurel…"

"I know. But you've been to Valhalla before. You know it's just the next chapter." She squeezed his hand, adding, "You know it's time. You don't have to -"

"We had this talk long ago," he interrupted, dismissing any other thought. "It's alright, love. It's time. It's been an incredible adventure, but it's time. You know... " He stood up, a smile spreading over his face as he held out his hand. "Let's dance, love."

"Loki…"

"Would you rather it be any other way?"

Taking his hand and slowly getting up, she smiled back at him. "No. It should be this way. Together." Loki put a hand on her waist, Laurel placing a gentle hand on his shoulder like she had done a million times before. They had no music, but it didn't matter. Small things like that didn't matter when you were looking Valhalla in the eye.

As they slowly spun around the room, Laurel leaned her head on Loki's shoulder. He sighed, kissing the top of her head and voicing what he had been worrying about for a very long time now. "Love… are you sure this is going to work? Last time was just -"

"It will," she assured him. "It will. I promise. It's very nearly time."

"I love you." He stopped abruptly, tilting her chin up so he could look her in the eye. "Laurel, I love you. Thank you for everything." His words came out faster now that he could feel what was happening, feel her dissolving into pure light. Even in the light of day, even in the sunlight that was spilling into the room, everything was already growing brighter. "You took an irredeemable monster, someone who never took off the mask to reveal the awful things he had suppressed… and gave him something to live for. An entire family to live for. Laurel, you've changed everything and you've made my life so much better. I love you."

"Loki," she beamed, reaching up to kiss him one last time, "I love you too."

There was a brilliant flash of golden light, thousands of specks of stardust exploding in a radiant flash before the room grew quiet. It was definitely different from the way she would normally get to Valhalla, but not bad at all. Laurel stood in the sacred halls, staring into the faces of marble statues of the rulers of Asgard. Loki's would be added to the halls of Valhalla soon. She looked down at her hands, seeing that they looked much younger, like time had wound back. Yes, she had to be dead. Everyone else in Valhalla was able to change their age and appearance at will. It only made sense. She felt better than she had in ages. It was wonderful. But there was something she was missing.

An astonished voice came from behind her, Laurel turning to see Loki standing at the end of the hall. He too had de-aged, his silver hair turning back to black, the creases smoothing out of his cheeks, the strength returning to him. He was incredulous, having been sure that a Jotun could never truly make it to Valhalla. "Laurel?"

"Is it really you?" she asked, running (Running! That was new!) into his arms. "Oh, it really is you. I knew it would work…"

As the two of them embraced and went to find the rest of their family, there was a new king taking the throne of Asgard. His younger brother was issuing a proclamation for a national day of mourning and getting ready to host a symbolic funeral, the biggest one since King Thor's death years before. Both of them were deeply mourning the loss of their parents, but they also knew that they had the ability to visit Valhalla should they need advice. Asgard had lost its king and queen, but as Laurel had promised, it would just be the beginning of a new chapter in Valhalla.

* * *

A.N.: And that's the end... I can't believe it. Thank you to everyone who's been on this journey with me. I've done hours of reading and watching and research, and I've come to know my characters so well. It's going to be difficult leaving them. But thank you to all of you! Thank you for your kindness, thank you for your support, and thank you for your love! You're the best!


	104. I'm Baaack

A.N.: Aaaand I'm back! I've had a few ideas floating around and wanted to get some writing done, but since I've got the LSAT and law school apps to do, I can't start working on any of my novel-length ideas right now. So I've decided to flesh out a few ideas I had that didn't quite make it into the story. The next few chapters are a series of snapshots, things that happened in the hundreds of years not documented in the story before. They can be set pretty much anywhere into the story, as long as the characters involved are alive (example: obviously Loki and Laurel have already had their kids if the kids are in the chapter). All of these are random things I thought of or things I wanted to fit into the main body of the story somehow but never managed to. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

* * *

Loki had been gone on a diplomatic mission for weeks now. To Laurel and the boys, it felt more like a few months. Sure, the kids were busy with school and Laurel was occupied by teaching and training at the Sanctum, but when they all met up for dinner at the end of the day, the distinctive lack of Loki was apparent. Thor had thought he was finally capable of going on diplomatic missions on his own, and Laurel readily agreed. But she halfway wished that Thor had forced her to go too, even if it was just to keep him company. Loki had gone to Vanaheim, negotiating a long-term trade deal on behalf of Asgard. Laurel was proud of him, but hated to see him go. When he returned, though, she almost wished he had never gone at all.

Buried in a book, Laurel didn't hear the soft _whoosh_ of a portal opening, Loki materializing a few feet behind her. He had, of course, stopped by to hand over all of his reports to Thor, but he just wanted to be home with the family he had made for himself. Suddenly there was a face hovering inches from her own, Loki leaning over the back of her chair to whisper, "Hello, love."

"Gods, Loki," Laurel laughed, turning to kiss him in surprise. "I missed you." As she stood up to give him a proper hug, though, she noticed that something was off. "Loki..."

She looked him up and down. Loki raising an eyebrow. "You don't look too happy to see me. I'd be happy to see me if I were you," he laughed. His smile faded quickly as Laurel began to frown. Something was clearly wrong. "Love?"

Laurel pursed her lips, looking him over one more time before she opened her mouth, sure that she had gotten it right. "You've been back to Sakaar. You smell like alcohol and that weird, disgusting cologne the Grandmaster douses himself in all the time."

"Well -"

Shaking her head, Laurel cut him off. "Well nothing, I can read it on your face. You know I hate that planet. It's nothing but a… a den of hedonism. They force people to work for them in order to keep the nobles rich and happy and not worrying about how much other people are being exploited. All the nobles do is host orgies, watch those cage-matches the Grandmaster sets up, and eat and drink until they pass out or throw up. And speaking of the Grandmaster -"

Loki gave a defeated sigh. "Laurel, I -"

"Were you even on a diplomatic mission at all?" she sighed, resigning herself to the fact that he had likely spent most of his time on the planet she detested so much. "Or were you on Sakaar for three weeks after you brokered a cut-and-dry deal with Vanaheim?"

Taking her hands, Loki adamantly promised that he had only been on Sakaar for, "A few days, love. Brunnhilde had sent me to pick up a few things for her on Sakaar while I was on my way back to Asgard, and I have always been warmly welcomed there."

"Yes, warmly welcomed," she repeated sarcastically, dropping his hands. Her voice grew poisonous as she asked, "How's the Grandmaster?"

"Laurel, I'm sorry. Love, I… I had been invited to a party at the palace, and… I'm sorry." The look of pain in his eyes proved how sincere he was, and she could feel the regret and the sadness that radiated behind them. "It was a long night of partying and drinking and carousing, and… there is no excuse. I'm so sorry, love. I hope you can still… can still look at me. Can still love me."

"It was only once?" she questioned, her arms firmly crossed. Her face remained stoic, even though she was falling apart inside, being eaten alive by betrayal.

"Yes." He knew better than to say anything else, to even try to defend himself. He had been wrong, after all. Terribly wrong, and now he had to confess everything. "I'm sorry, love."

"I know." Laurel picked up her book, tucking it under her arm as she sighed again. Watching in futility, Loki accepted his punishment and sat down on the sofa, Laurel simply telling him, "I'm exhausted. We can talk about this in the morning. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, love." He watched her go, staring until she had vanished, softly closing the bedroom door. Dejectedly, he went downstairs to shower in one of the guest rooms, debating sleeping there. But he ended up back in his own quarters, wanting to be as close to his wife as he could be, because it pained him to be anywhere else.

As he lay back on the sofa and magically dimmed the lights, Loki knew he was in for a restless night. He had had the same dull pain in his stomach, the feeling of regret and anguish, since he woke up on Sakaar and realized what had happened at the party the night before. Even the Grandmaster had made a joke at breakfast about her finding out, Loki laughing along with all of the others at the breakfast table but ready to shout on the inside. He knew Laurel would find out no matter what, and he knew she wouldn't be happy, but he had dragged himself back home anyway, ready to face his punishment.

 _At least she didn't throw you out. At least she didn't yell. At least she didn't start crying right away. Oh, but you know you've crushed her. She's going to be doubting herself, doubting everything, doubting how wonderful she is. You've messed up. You've fucked up big time, Loki. You've got to live the rest of your life making this up to her. You can never go back to Sakaar. You can't even mention it. And you have to treat her like the princess she is. Gods, why did you have to do this? I hardly remember it… I don't think I've ever drank that much. That doesn't matter. None of it matters. You messed up, and you've got to try to mitigate the damages._

Turning over on the sofa, Loki stared at the light underneath the bedroom door. He had checked to see if the light was on in her room so many times back at the Avengers Facility, just to see if she was still awake when he went to bed or when he roamed the halls in the dead of night. He had used the little bit of light streaming out from under her door as a way to gauge whether or not he should knock, even if it was just with a made-up excuse to see her again. Now he watched as she paced, shadows breaking up the light every few seconds. He could hear her sniffling as she paced, his heart breaking even more. He wished he could go to her, to hug her and make everything better, to turn back time and fix everything he had done. Eventually, the light turned off and he could hear her getting into bed, tossing and turning just like he was doing.

Both of them lay awake for hours, eventually falling into restless sleeps. Loki was woken up in the middle of the night by the slight creaking of the bedroom door. He sat up to see Laurel coming towards him, a pillow and a blanket in hand. "I thought you could use these," she said coldly, knowing that Loki had easily conjured his own. It was a gesture of goodwill, and both of them knew it, though neither decided to say anything.

"Thank you." He watched as she sat down on the floor next to the sofa, facing him.

Without another word, Laurel lay her head on the cushion, intertwining her right arm with his. Loki reached out and kissed the top of her head, taking in the sight of her in the moonlight. "I felt like I was going to throw up when I realized where I was," he confessed, keeping his voice quiet. Laurel didn't look up at him, though he continued, "It had been a huge welcome party, and I missed you terribly. I kept accepting the drinks they gave me, and eventually I stopped counting. I remember some of that night, but barely… When I woke up and realized what I had done, I considered not coming back at all, just going to Midgard and living the rest of my life out. I… I would rather have been banished than have had to tell you. But you and the boys would never have known where I'd gone, and you deserve an explanation, even if it's a horrible one. Laurel, I'm sorry." He didn't think he would be the first to cry, but he could feel his voice breaking. "I'm so sorry. When I came home, when I saw you sitting there with your book, just like the old days, I wanted to disappear. I remembered all over again what it was like falling in love with you, and I knew… I knew the instant you saw me that everything would change. There would be no fooling you. You could have just as easily read my mind, if not read the guilt on my face. I knew I was walking to my death, but I had to confess."

When she finally spoke, her voice was rough, like she had been crying for a while before she came to talk to him. "I want to hate you. I am definitely mad at you, but I want to hate you. I want to want revenge, to want to hurt you and make you pay for everything. But I can't. I'm just sad, and disappointed, and… this isn't how I thought tonight would go. I wanted you home with me, and I thought we'd be happy… I thought… Loki, I can't even ask you why." She looked up at him, her eyes watering in the moonlight. "There are a million questions that don't have answers and never will, just because of who we are. I just wanted you home. Not all of this."

"I know. I'm sorry, love. I will be eternally sorry."

"I've always wondered if I was enough for you," she sniffled, doing her best to meet his eye even though she wished she could look away. "I've always wondered… I'm just a human. Just a Midgardian, one of the background characters in all of the legends about you and Thor and your people. I'm… the entire world that I come from is so different. We live such short lives, we do things so differently… I'd always wondered if I was enough. I know I've changed a lot, and that I've branched out a lot, but I still wondered from time to time if I was everything you wanted, everything you needed… And hearing that, knowing that -"

"You are always enough," he cut her off, insisting that, "You are always enough. More than enough. You've given up everything - your life, your realm, everything you knew as normal - for me. You keep me sane, you keep me happy. You are enough, and you always have been. I've made a terrible mistake, and I can't even begin to try to justify it. But you are enough. You always have been and always will be, because you're you."

Laurel squeezed his hand, carefully climbing onto the sofa with him. As she intertwined her legs with his, Loki automatically draped an arm over her, pulling her closer until she was able to use his chest as a pillow. They had slept like that for years, ever since they had first fallen asleep next to each other so long ago. There was something about holding onto her that Loki enjoyed, almost needed, as he fell asleep. Not having her there kept him up for a while, no matter how tired he was. He was immediately more relaxed if she was next to him. "I love you. I'm royally pissed off, but I love you," she sighed, glad that she was able to hold onto him again, no matter how mad she was. It had been a long time since they'd fallen asleep like this, a long time since she was able to hold onto him and smell him and kiss him whenever she wanted.

"I love you too. And I promise I'll do anything… I will do everything in my power to, well, I can't make it up to you, but I will do everything I can to make it better. And I will never set foot on Sakaar again. Laurel, love, I'm sorry. I want nothing but you, no one but you. You are the best person I've ever met, and I would go to the ends of the Nine Realms for you if you asked."

"I think I'd much prefer you to stay right here." She laid her head back down on his chest, Loki smiling to himself as he slowly began to feel that, while things were quite rocky now, everything would be alright in the end.


	105. Transformations

The first time Loki had transformed in front of Laurel had been when they were being followed down the street by a group of hecklers. They were in the middle of Manhattan, surrounded by people and stores and a street full of cabs and angry drivers, when someone had sighted Loki, who had refused, for some reason or another, to dress in normal Midgardian clothing. Laurel had tried, but had so far not been able to convince him. Eventually, though, he would grow fond of black suits, and, with enough time, regular Midgardian clothes (Laurel loved sneaking pictures of him looking like a Midgardian, sending them to Thor and the team or posting them online).

As someone yelled at them from a cab for the fourth time, Loki ducked into an alleyway, pulling Laurel along with him. When they stepped out, there were two women, heading out and about the city. No one paid them any mind, even on the subway. Laurel herself didn't say anything until they got back to the Avengers Facility, where Loki immediately shifted back to the form he usually took.

" _You looked nice, by the way," Laurel told him, fishing her keys out of her purse and hanging them on a hook by her door. Loki took a seat on the sofa nearby, nodding as he remained deep in thought. "I wish you'd be more comfortable appearing however you want whenever you want, but I know people won't always be nice about it."_

" _It doesn't bother you?"_

 _Laurel shed her jacket next, pulling a hanger from the hall closet and hanging it up as she asked, "Why would it?"_

" _It doesn't bother you that you're dating a… an alien monster of no specific gender or sexuality, that can shift appearance at will?"_

 _Dropping down onto the sofa next to him, Laurel shook her head. "No, why would it? I'm used to things that are sort of out of the ordinary. I mean, I work with a seventy-something supersoldier, a god, two genius scientists - one of which can turn into a giant - who come up with all sorts of things, an ex-assassin… I learned magic from a surgeon-turned-wizard for Odin's sake. That is how you use that phrase, right? Anyway," she assured him, taking his hand, "I'm used to things that other people wouldn't see as quite normal. I really don't mind if I come home and see you sitting here as a Jotun, or as a woman, or a man, or both, or neither. Just tell me what you're feeling at the time, and I can roll with that."_

" _You really don't mind?"_

 _She leaned in and delicately kissed his cheek, saying, "No. I love you, and I will keep reminding you of that no matter what form you feel like taking. You are devilishly handsome, but you know what I fell in love with? I fell in love with the way you hum to yourself when you read, and the wonder in your eyes every time you master a new spell, and the way you listen so intensely even if I've told you the same story before, and how you always come to check up on me when I'm sick or when I get home from a battle, even when it's really late at night. I fell in love with you perching on the counter and talking to me while I cook, and with you texting me 'goodnight' and 'good morning' even if we've just seen each other, and with how you leave flowers on my kitchen table when I'm gone. Loki, I fell in love with you, and I want you to be happy. So if you feel more like a woman one day, why should it bother me? Why should you being a Jotun bother me?"_

 _Loki pulled her into a hug, smiling into her hair. "Thank you. I love you."_

" _I love you too, Loki."_

From then on, Laurel would, at times, come home to find a beautiful woman perched on the sofa or in an armchair, reading a book. Without blinking an eye, she would smile and say, "Hello, Loki. I missed you. You've got to hear what boneheaded idea Steve came up with in the middle of a battle today…"

At other times, she would find Loki looking as he usually did, but he would look up at her and just go, "more than one" or "none of the above." So she would smile and kiss them hello, just like always, going on about her day as she set her things down, started making tea, and ventured into the bedroom to change out of her battle gear or training clothes.

In front of the others, Loki would take on his normal form, unless he needed a handy disguise. But in front of Laurel (and Thor, who she found out was one of the most supportive brothers anyone could have hoped for, at least in some regards), he would readily shift depending on how he was feeling that day. Eventually, though, they had to sit down and discuss this, when Laurel found out she was pregnant. Even though they had only known for a couple of months, Loki was already worried about how they would explain everything to their children, how they would raise them to accept the fact that their father would shapeshift when he felt like it.

 _He was nearly pulling his hair out at this point, Laurel sitting nearby, not nearly as stressed. "We can't raise them with two moms one day, a mom and a dad the next, a mom and a Frost Giant, a -"_

" _Loki, you're being ridiculous," Laurel objected, resting a hand on her ever-growing stomach. "People like you on Midgard raise their children to adapt their language just like I do. It'll be fine."_

 _Loki frowned, setting his book in his lap. He hadn't been able to read all night, instead stewing in his own thoughts. "It's one thing when it's just between us, but an entire family…"_

" _You shouldn't have to hide who you are in front of our children," Laurel fretted, reaching for his hand. "It's going to be fine."_

 _He was silent for a moment, finally determining that, "I think I'll just have them call me 'Dad'. It'll be easier. You are right, though. Sometimes I might not look like most people's picture of 'Dad', but I'll be one all the same."_

" _You'll be a great one," she assured him with a yawn. "I think, for the moment, though, that it's time for us to get some sleep. At least before I start getting kicked. He's started kicking me in the middle of the night, you know."_

 _Loki laughed a bit, leaning over to kiss her stomach. "That's not very nice," he whispered, "kicking your mother while she's trying to sleep. Goodness knows you'll keep her awake when you're born. Let her have some rest now." He looked back at Laurel, confessing, "You know, out of all of them,Thor was the best about it, at least until I met you. Odin hated it. My mother tolerated it, but she always had this bit of… uncomfortableness about it. Thor took it in stride - he had a brother, he had a sister, he had both, neither… We eventually settled on 'brother' for the sake of simplicity, and since it appeased our parents. Hopefully it'll be easier with our own kids."_

" _It will be," Laurel promised, setting her glasses on the nightstand next to her. "It will be."_

When they boys were older, Finn around eight and Jake around seven, Laurel and Loki sat them down to clarify some things. Loki, despite his silver tongue, had not come up with a way to explain this to the kids, even though they had talked about it from time to time. But Laurel already had a plan.

"You know how Dad sometimes snaps his fingers and looks different? Like how he'll turn himself blue sometimes, or how he'll look -"

"Like this," Loki chipped in, suddenly transforming into his favorite feminine form, one modeled slightly after Laurel, "even though you still call me 'Dad'." With an encouraging hand-squeeze from Laurel, Loki let her continue talking.

"And how sometimes he feels better when we use 'they' or 'she' instead of 'he'? Well, sometimes Dad feels more comfortable looking like this. Sometimes he feels better looking like you're used to seeing him most of the time. Sometimes he feels more like a boy, or a girl, or both at the same time, or neither, or something else. We just wanted to tell you that we're so proud of you for being able to keep up with Dad like that. Lots of people can't wrap their heads around it. Uncle Thor is pretty good, but lots of other people aren't."

"And if you ever want to do the same thing, Dad can teach you the magic," Loki added, shifting back into the form he usually took. "And if you ever have questions -"

Jake's hand shot up into the air. "Can we have ice cream tonight?"

"Why do you not paint your nails for fancy balls like you do when we're just at home?"

"Can we paint Muffin's nails?"

"He wouldn't like it." Finn, the voice of reason, turned to address his brother. "We've got to wait til he's asleep. Or have Mom and Dad do it with magic."

Laurel and Loki shared a look, as if to say, "Well, that went easier than expected." and "I guess we could let them have extra ice cream."


	106. Busy

"Loki, I'm busy." It was a phrase he had heard a lot in his hundreds of years of life, but not one he was used to hearing from Laurel. She was sitting in the middle of a pile of printouts, her laptop in her lap, her phone glued to her ear as she waited to be taken off of hold. Files radiated out from where she was sitting as she tried to get some work done. Muffin the cat sat on one of the piles of files, lazily flicking his tail back and forth as he tried to understand what she was doing. "Not now."

"Oh, umm, okay." Loki sighed, slinking away in defeat as Laurel kept arguing with whoever was on the other end of her call. She had been busy like this a lot lately, staying up late at night trying to coordinate something, something he didn't understand _for the Sanctum or for the Avengers or something. She's been working hard at it… don't bother her. I know, it sounds like Odin dismissing you. But she's just busy. She's got plenty of work to do. Think about it, she's got her work with the Avengers and the Sanctum. At least she's not pulling all-nighters like she's done before. But she's been so busy lately._

Grabbing a book from their room, Loki came to sit on the sofa a safe distance away. With a snap of his fingers, he made a cup of tea appear, floating it over to where Laurel was busy arguing with someone over the phone. "Thank you," she mouthed during a pause, almost immediately going back to her conversation about how, "I'm just asking for an extension on section 37a, with regards to Mr. Stark's part of the agreement. Yes, that's it. No, I've been transferred several times now and - yes, I've already spoken with her. And her secretary. And her assistant. Yes, I have the verification number, just a moment…"

Loki tuned her out as he began to read, Laurel sighing loudly as she was put on hold yet again. She would sometimes start rifling through her files or typing something, but most of her time was spent reading from a giant document that she had pulled up on her laptop. Loki would look over and check on her every few minutes, though. When Laurel finally gave an exasperated sigh and hung up, laying back on the floor, he simply glanced over, raising an eyebrow. "Something wrong?" he asked coolly, setting his book in his lap.

Laurel groaned, explaining everything from her spot on the floor. "Steve and I have been working on this Wakandan trade deal, but it's getting more complicated now that we're at the weapons negotiation stage. That's why they want us - the Vibranium is going to a weapons program, and we've got activists and NGOs on our asses trying to start a lawsuit over it, even though not even 1% of the material is going to be used for weapons. And since a lot of this is being brokered by Stark Industries, Tony's been dragged in too. I've been filing all sorts of legal paperwork for days now."

"Hmm." It was a vaguely angry sound, one that Laurel knew to question.

Sitting up and putting her glasses back on, Laurel looked to Loki and raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"

"You've come to bed incredibly late for the last week and a half," Loki mused as Laurel set her laptop aside and began looking for something in a file, pulling papers out and taking the file apart. "You've hardly said more than 'hello', 'goodnight' and 'love you' to me for I don't know how long. This trade deal is killing you."

"It's got to get done," she yawned, getting up and stretching. "I need everything done before the next UN meeting so we have everything we need to present it to the entire body. Steve's been working like crazy too. He's been writing and rewriting this one subsection, and we can't get it perfected to satisfy everyone. I don't think we're ever going to, if I'm being completely honest. And then we've got to integrate Tony's part into all of this on a really short deadline."

"I'm not in love with Captain Rogers," Loki laughed, coming over to hug her. "You've been stressed beyond belief, love. I can tell just by holding you. You're holding so much tension in your shoulders, and you're clenching your jaw even now. As soon as all of this business is over, we're taking a few days off for ourselves and disappearing off of the grid, as you Midgardians say."

Laurel smiled, reaching up to kiss him as she consciously let go of the tension in her jaw. "That would be nice. But what's wrong, Loki? What's really wrong? You look like you're hiding something, something more than just that."

He paused for a moment before telling her to, "Please never get too busy for me."

"Loki, why would you think I'd ever get too busy for you?" she frowned, draping her arms over his shoulders. "I could never be too busy for you. Sure, I've got a lot of work to do right now, but being able to climb into bed next to you helps to keep me sane. Being able to see you reminds me of why I keep fighting for things like this, fighting to protect other people and their lands and their homes. I know you hate seeing me trapped under piles of paperwork, and I know it keeps me away from you… I'll just have to find a way for you to keep me company. You could grab your laptop and work on that script you've been putting together." But she knew there was another layer there, something else he had wanted to tell her but couldn't bring himself to.

 _Odin. It has to be something about Odin, about how he would look at his younger son and frown, telling him not to be a bother, telling him that "I'm busy, Loki. Can't you see I have work to do?" Totally dismissing him from the room, even if Thor was allowed to stay. The two of them were brought up to be kings, but they were never brought up to be equals. Odin always favored Thor, always loved him more, always figured he would take over the throne. He just trained Loki as a precaution, on the very off chance anything happened to his eldest son, his favorite and the one he was really lining up to take over the throne._

"I'm sorry," Laurel told him, Loki raising an eyebrow. "I… I didn't think when I told you I was busy. I shouldn't have just dismissed you like that. I know that's what your father did. I'm sorry, Loki. I never want you to have to feel like that again - forgotten, abandoned, always second-best, no matter what… I wish I could fix all of it, but I can't. And I'm sorry if I've ever done anything that made you feel like that."

His words were measured carefully, Loki weighing all of them out before opening his mouth. "Laurel, love, you… you don't erase that pain, You can't. But being with you dulls it. It makes it a whole lot easier to bear, because I know you're right here, and I know it's you, I know you love me, no matter how busy you are or how annoyed you may be with other people. I know you're still here, even if the universe is trying to pull you away."

"And I'm never leaving," Laurel promised, hugging him tightly. "Now I've got some more work to get done. Why don't you grab your stuff and sit next to me? Or let me sit up on the sofa with you?"

Loki would end up coming to sit on the floor with her, his back against the sofa while Laurel was poised nearby, all of her files within reach. Eventually, she moved to sit next to him, Loki leaning his head on her shoulder and reading along with her, pointing out flaws in the draft of the document she had in front of her. It seemed like ages later when Laurel sighed, closing her laptop in frustration, having decided that she was done working for the night. "Loki?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you sleeping?"

"Not any more," he smiled lazily, kissing her softly and beginning to stretch. "It's nearly midnight, love. We should go to bed."

"I'm tempted to say we should just go to sleep on the couch," Laurel yawned, getting up to put her nearly-dead laptop on its charger.

Loki tucked his book under his arm as he came over to massage her shoulders. "No, let's actually go to bed. You need some rest, in a real bed, in real pajamas, not on the sofa or at the kitchen table like you've been doing. Love, I came out in the middle of the night to check on you, just to find you with your head on the table surrounded by those files."

"You're right," she admitted, shoving all of her files into one pile on the sofa, "I do need to sleep in a real bed. Next to my husband, who I love very much and will never ignore, no matter how much work I have to do."


	107. Karaoke Night

_Come down to the living room. - Stark_

 _I AM ON MY WAY. THOR._

 _Bringing some snacks - Steve_

 _HOW DOES ONE FIND THE INTERNET ON THE TELEVISION? THOR._

 _I'll be down to help in a second, don't touch anything - Stark_

 _I've got it. - Nat_

* * *

"Did you get the same text?" Loki asked from the sofa. "Well, series of texts? You need to teach my brother how to turn the caps lock off."

Laurel, who was in her kitchen, checked her phone and nodded. "It's in the Facility group chat, silly," she laughed, answering Tony with a quick, ' _be there in a sec'_. "C'mon, let's go see what he's up to. It's eight o'clock on a Friday night, and he's calling all of us together? It's gotta be something good."

Obediently, Loki followed, even though he wasn't really looking forward to spending time with the rest of the Avengers. They tolerated him, but nothing more. Well, aside from Thor and Laurel, but they had good reason. And Steve, who, while he didn't trust Loki, was much nicer than some of the others because he was such good friends with Laurel. "Hey." Loki stopped her before they reached the main living room, where other people's voices were already floating into the hall. "Wait a second."

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

Laurel smiled, giving him a kiss. "I love you too. Now stop stalling." She took his hand, readily stepping into the room to find almost all of the others already assembled. "Hey, everybody. What's up?"

Tony handed both of them full glasses, saying, "It's Avengers Karaoke night."

"Oh, joy." Loki rolled his eyes, dropping onto the sofa. He glowered at everyone over his glass as Laurel beamed, saying hello and hugging the others, greeting people she hadn't seen in a while, like Peter, who had just finished a round of exams and had come back to the Facility after a decent amount of time, and Pepper, who had been away at a conference for the last week. Clint had come to visit too, his wife and the kids away at his sister-in-law's for the weekend while he was stuck at work (a normal job, as Nat liked to remind him, with normal, boring people).

When Laurel finally came back to sit down next to Loki, when everyone had downed their first two rounds of drinks and Loki had grown bored with the pleasantries, the "How are you? How are the kids? What's new? How's the lab? The mission you were on?" and all of that "niceness" that he thought was pointless, he was glad to see her. Wrapping an arm around her waist, Loki winked, magically refilling their glasses.

"There's no way you're getting me to sing," he told her, Laurel shaking her head as Thor tried to help set up the TV for karaoke, despite the fact that he knew almost nothing about Midgardian technology and hadn't taken to it easily like Loki had.

"You have a nice voice," she whispered encouragingly, kissing him on the cheek. "I've heard you singing to yourself in the bookshelves. And I know you sing in the shower. I've heard you before, and you are so going to sing. Just give it a little while."

"Okay, so can we all agree that Tony is not allowed to do 'Iron Man'?" Nat surveyed the group, everyone giving loud expressions of approval. She poured herself another drink, satisfied that she had made her point. "It's way too on-theme with the whole 'I am Iron Man' mindset he's got going on 24/7."

After a stirring rendition of "Hit Me with Your Best Shot", Clint dropped into his chair, gesturing for someone else to take over the center stage after he'd opened for them. "Come on, guys, let's go."

"One more round," Thor requested, passing a flask of Asgardian mead around. Peter raised his soda in agreement.

Loki rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath. "Here we go. One round of that stuff will have even your supersoldier friend up there singing those modern songs of yours." He sipped his drink in judgement, Laurel laughing a bit.

"Steve would sing no matter what. And I wouldn't be so quick to judge, because I'm so going to get you up there."

"No."

"Mhm, just give it another hour and you'll be singing too," Laurel nodded, sure of herself as she turned to talk to Pepper while Loki continued to scowl at everyone from where he sat on the sofa.

Wanda went on to steal the show from everyone with a fantastic rendition of "Witchy Woman", complete with visual effects of glowing red light that lit up the entire room. By the time she was done, half of the group was clapping, most of the others still in shock at the concert-like performance she had given.

"Like I said, there's no way I'm getting up there, let alone doing an entire light show," Loki quipped as Laurel casually draped her legs over him. With a snap of his fingers, he refilled their glasses. "Especially not when all of these people record everything." He looked pointedly to Peter, who was compiling an entire album of embarrassing material on all of them. As the only one of them who was too young to drink, he was in a perfect position to collect as much blackmail as he could.

"Oh, I'll wipe their memories and their phones. Or just make their memories fuzzy enough to where they can't remember it properly and think you sang something, but can't remember what it was or what it sounded like," Laurel suggested, pecking him on the cheek as Thor grabbed the microphone. "Besides, you've got a great voice."

" _We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun, where the hot springs flow, the hammer of the gods_ …" He struck a pose, everyone cheering him on as Loki rolled his eyes again.

"Thank the gods we never had such a game as this on Asgard." Laurel knew it was useless arguing with him, so she went back to cheering the others on and thinking up a song for herself.

" _You don't own me. I'm not just one of your many toys. You don't own me. Don't say I can't go with other boys,_ " Nat crooned next, winking at Steve, who would soon pull her up to dance with him to an older song that none of them had heard before, but that got a lot of them slow-dancing along and trying to come up with the words.

By that point, Tony was busy trying to find a good drinking song, one a lot of them could sing along to. He pulled Clint up to help him, but soon enough, Thor, Steve, and Bruce had gathered around them too, hunched over Tony's laptop as they all sorted out their ideas. "You ought to find a song," Laurel told Loki, who frowned in disapproval. "Because I'm going next, and everyone's going to get a kick out of it, especially because of you."

"Joy," Loki grumbled, looking back to where the others had finally decided on a song and were queueing up for the performance of a lifetime. "At least by this point, none of them will sound too dreadful."

"Ssh."

" _After four rounds with Jose Cuervo, I was showing off moves never seen before."_ Pepper was the first one to burst into peals of laughter at the horrible dance moves the boys were trying to show off, Tony in the lead. She had taken her phone out and was filming everything, prepared to send them all the footage in the morning. Peter, meanwhile, was busy video-calling Shuri and sharing the whole thing live. They only got half of the words right, but it was hilarious to watch.

After the song had ended, the boys gathered around the computer again, but Laurel handed Loki her drink, moving the boys aside and announcing that it was her turn. "Come on, she hasn't had a chance to wow us yet." Tony dropped into his spot next to Pepper, who was still trying to catch her breath from laughing at all of them.

"I don't know how she'll beat that," Steve laughed to the others, taking over Laurel's spot for the time being, then realizing that his drink was across the room and getting up again. "Good luck."

"Just watch me, boys," she smiled devilishly, waiting for the music to start. Taking a deep breath as the music swelled, she looked Loki dead in the eye and began to sing. " _Mama, I'm in love with a criminal, and this type of love isn't rational…"_ It wasn't, but any great love isn't totally rational. This one, though, with an agent of good on one side and one of the greatest criminals the Avengers had ever faced on the other, made no sense to anyone but the two of them. The room held it's breath, not entirely believing that she had manged to pick such an accurate song.

" _He's a villain by the Devil's law, he's a killer just for fun…"_ Well, not any more. Loki had changed a lot during his captivity, especially in regards to when and why he was willing to kill. But before, when he was working as an agent of Thanos, he had relished in the power he had over people's lives.

" _He's a bad boy with a tainted heart, and even I know this ain't smart…"_ She had been warned about Loki from the moment she had gotten there. When the others discovered they were becoming friends, Steve begged her to reconsider, pleading with her on behalf of the entire team. And when they figured out that they had grown even closer, each one of them, individually or in a pair, came to warn Laurel against the idea. She had been the one to start showing them that Loki wasn't that bad at all, that he was changing, becoming a better person and trying to make up for the things he had done not entirely of his own free will.

" _And I hear people talk, try to make remarks, keep us apart…"_ That they did. The other Avengers, people they met on the street or in public, complete strangers on the subway. Everyone thought they were entitled to letting Laurel know what they thought about Loki, almost none of it good. She put up with some of them, but eventually decided to correct them, to politely explain that Loki had changed, that he was not fully in control of his actions when the tried to take over Midgard, and that he was doing all he could to make up for it. She still fiercely defended him whenever the situation called for it, even if he wasn't there with her.

Laurel smirked, finishing up the song as she came over to where Loki sat guarding their drinks. Straddling his lap, she settled into a kiss with a, " _Mama, please don't cry, I will be alright. All reason aside, I just can't deny, love the guy."_

Tony cheered, Pepper showing Thor how to take a picture on his phone for blackmail. "Alright, guys, break it up," Steve joked, Laurel sitting back and looking at Loki, who smiled and stood, setting her gently on her feet again.

"My turn." He gave her one more kiss, Laurel crossing her arms and waiting to see what he would come up with.

" _In my life there's been heartache and pain. I don't know if I can face it again. Can't stop now, I've traveled so far, to change this lonely life..."_ True enough. He was millions of miles from where he had grown up, stuck in a facility that was more like a prison to him than a home, with people who (mostly) despised and distrusted him. He had turned his entire life upside-down with one decision, and was now paying the price for it. But that had brought him to Laurel, so it had done a bit of good, at least.

" _I want to know what love is. I want you to show me. I want to feel what love is. I know you can show me."_ Laurel smiled, her eyes glued to him as he sang. His eyes were glued to her, Loki not paying attention to any of the others, who either sat in awe of how readily he was professing this to her or (as in Thor's case) were busy filming the entire scene. But it didn't matter to Loki, whose eyes were still glued to Laurel as he finished the song.

Tony took over the mic next, but neither of them paid much attention. "That was beautiful," Laurel whispered, Loki sitting back down and wrapping an arm around her. "I told you this was a good idea."

"I want you to show me."

"What?"

"What love is. The song, love. I want you to show me," he winked, moving even closer to tell her that, "I think it's time for bed."

"Hmm, that sounds like a good idea," Laurel grinned, taking his hand and pulling him to his feet. "Goodnight, my dears. We've had fun, but I'm falling asleep in my seat. Enjoy your karaoke."


	108. I'm Writing While I Wait for Endgame

Have y'all seen Endgame yet? I'm seeing it on Saturday, so no spoilers, please! Since we're all either stressing about what happens in the movie or stressing about not seeing any spoilers, I figured I'd drop another chapter, just an idea I had in the car on the way home from work today. Enjoy and don't spoil the Endgame!

* * *

Everything tasted like glue. The world was heavy, and everything tasted like glue. No matter what Steve whipped up in the kitchen, Laurel couldn't muster the ability to eat much of anything. Going through the motions of normal life was tiring, even when all she did was roll out of bed, get herself together, and spend time in the living room or out on the roof top.

Thor understood. He had lost his brother, after all. And they had been brothers for centuries. He must have had an even bigger void in his life, but to Laurel, it felt like she had been crushed.

Get out of bed. Take a shower and stand in the water for ten minutes before realizing that you're still covered in soap. Finally manage to get out and put on another set of pajamas. Realize you're running out of yoga pants and use magic instead of doing laundry like the rest of the Avengers. Go out and make some tea. Sit at the table and try to eat. Move to the sofa. Move to the greenhouse or the gardens or the library. Doze off for a bit, at least until Steve comes to say that it's time for lunch, if you're up for it. Maybe manage to go for a walk. Repeat until after dinner. Then go back to sleep.

Occasionally she would bump into the others, but they largely left her alone. Steve would seek her out and sit beside her without a word, reading or working on the day's crossword while keeping her company. He knew that there was nothing he could really do, but she needed some company. He tried to get her to eat, but tea and protein shakes and a few bites of meals here and there had to do for the time being. They might exchange a few words, but there wasn't much that needed saying.

Thor was also functioning on autopilot most of the time. The two of them would come across each other and automatically fall into a hug, too emotionally exhausted to cry but fully understanding the heartbreaking loss they were facing, the loss they had repressed for days so they could keep fighting for what they had left.

They had all lost so much. Thor had, at one point, told her that they had nothing left to lose. But then they started losing more people. No matter what little they had left, there was always something that could be taken away. For now, they at least had each other, their shared misery and pain and the feeling of being lost in the world they had once known so well.

It was late at night when Laurel finally dozed off. It seemed to happen like that a lot now that Loki was gone. She would toss and turn and eventually sit up, try to read something until she realized that she'd read an entire chapter but retained nothing, and then try to lay down again. She would get up and go for a walk around the complex, enjoying the peace and quiet that the darkness offered. Once or twice she had run into Thor going on the same walk, and she would join him in his silence. There was nothing to say. They simply understood each other, understood the pain and the darkness that seemed to swallow up their lives now. More often, though, she would walk alone, longing for the days when she would run into Loki out and about at night.

She could hardly bear to stay in the library for very long, or sit on the rooftop. Too many ghosts of memories with him. So instead she would sit in Tony and Bruce's labs, or go down to practice in the archery range in the dead of night. Sometimes Bruce or Tony was still up working - mostly Tony, who, after the losses they had endured, had thrown himself into his work - and they would let her watch them, staring at the glittering vials of chemicals lining the lab benches or wondering at the thousands of tiny pieces that were slowly forming a new invention. Other times she would find Clint up late in the archery range, practicing now that his family, or what was left of it, had gone to bed. They'd taken some rooms int he facility or be closer to the others in an uncertain time like this, but the sense of loss was still deep.

Rolling over in bed again, Laurel checked her phone, seeing that it was nearly 3 AM. With a heavy sigh, she closed her eyes again, drifting in and out of an unsteady sleep.

 _She could feel someone laying down next to her, the familiar kiss on her forehead as he wrapped his arms around her. Just like he would when he'd come back late from the library, or when he'd been out practicing a new spell and insisted on staying up until he'd mastered it, even if it meant that he went to bed as the sun came up. "Loki?" Laurel croaked, draping an arm over him._

 _"Yes, love?" Yes, it was Loki. The same Loki who she'd fallen asleep next to for a while now. It was like he'd never left._

 _She looked up, his glittering eyes focused on her. "Nothing. It's just good to see you."_

 _"You saw me a few hours ago," he smiled, that mischievous, devilish smile that she loved so much. "Did you really miss me that much?"_

 _"I... I know, but... please don't leave."_

 _"I'm not going anywhere," he assured her, kissing the top of her head. "Maybe to Asgard, but I'd take you along with me."  
_

 _"Asgard's gone," she reminded him with a sigh. "And New Asgard... there's not much left. There's not much left anywhere, Loki. There aren't even many of us left."  
_

 _"Well, I know my brother made it. There would have been an uproar in Valhalla if he hadn't," Loki mused, pulling the blanket tighter around the two of them. "Odin would have certainly said something."_

 _"Valhalla? How would you know -" Laurel paused, realizing for the first time how pale he was, how, in the moonlight, he looked less than real. Her heart sank as she came to terms with what this meant. "You're not really here, are you? Loki, you're still dead."_

 _"I'm here. You've kissed me. Didn't it feel like I was real?" A grin was tugging at the corner of his mouth as he added, "I can prove it to you in another way if you want."_

 _She could feel her eyes starting to water, but suppressed her tears as she tentatively asked, "Does it mean you have to go away now that I've... now that I know?"_

 _"No, not for a while. I knew you would figure it out pretty quickly. But I wanted to see you. It's so... Valhalla feels so empty without you. I wouldn't want you to have to go there, but it's missing something. I'm missing something."_

 _"So am I. I miss you, Loki. I miss being able to come home to you. I miss being able to hunt you down in this maze of rooms and labs and everything and... I miss having you here." Laurel held him tightly, burying her head in his chest. "Please don't leave until you really have to."_

 _"I won't." They stayed like that until the sun started to rise, when Loki's figure grew more and more transparent until he was starting to fade away._ _Giving_ _her a final kiss, he promised that he would be back, that he would try to cross the border between this world and Valhalla whenever he could manage it, even though it was against the natural order of the universe. "I love you," he vowed, growing more and more transparent._

 _"I love you too." As the words left her mouth, Loki vanished, the sunlight flooding the room and banishing everything that wasn't totally real._

Laurel sat up, seeing that she was alone. She couldn't tell if the indent in the bed next to her was really Loki's, or if she had just rolled over in her sleep enough to disturb the other side of the bed. Had any of it even been real? For some reason, she felt like at least a shred of it had actually happened. At least it made her feel a little better to think that it did. Even if it was her mind making everything up, it made her feel better being able to see him, even if it was only for a little while. _This isn't the end_ , she reasoned, _not even close._


	109. An Alternate Reality

Okay, y'all, we're back. There are some things that I just HAVE to write, you know? Well, we're going to consider this an alternative timeline, a branch one off of where we left off in around Chapter 30. There WILL BE SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME, so if you haven't seen it yet, please hold off on reading any further. If you have, buckle your seat belts, bc here we go. (FINAL SPOILER WARNING!)

* * *

Steve waited patiently until he heard her up and about, getting ready for training. Laurel was humming to herself, an old song that she'd shown him a while back. With a sigh, he went back to his book, leaning against the door to her part of the compound. It was there that she found him, pulling the door open and almost making him fall backwards with the sudden loss of support. "Hey." He jumped to his feet, giving her a concerned hug. "You ready?"

"It's just us and Nat, like it is most days. Not much to really dress up for. Steve, what's up? You have that look like something's going on that I don't know about."

"Aren't you going to New Asgard today?"

"Why? I've only been once, when they founded their little colony." Laurel locked her door, though she didn't know why. She, Steve, and Nat were the only ones left who were regularly in the complex anymore. Bruce would occasionally come to visit, and others would drop in once every few months, but they were relatively alone. Laurel would make the drive out to see Tony and his family, but he never came to visit, or at least not any longer than to pick a few things up. It was habit, she guessed.

Steve pushed the button for the elevator, giving her a knowing look. "We both know that isn't quite true. You vanish for a period of time every year, on this day, then you come back saying that you're freezing, and it takes you all evening to warm up. You get strangely quiet, like you do whenever soemone mentions Asgard, or Thor, or Loki, or anything to do with them. It's just like his birthday, when you walk around like you're numb to all of it. You're making trips there, and you don't want us to know about it."

"Do you know what today is?" Her voice faltered a little as they stepped onto the elevator. Laurel kept her eyes trained on the door, but Steve's glance flicked to her hands. She was twisting the ring on her finger, the one she never took off, not even now, five years later. At first he'd understood, but many people had started moving on. Not her, it seemed. "It's been five years. It's been five years, and I know you preach about moving on with your little therapy group, but have you really moved on, Steve?" She paused, glancing at him quickly before looking back at the door. "It's been five years since he died, and I can still see him every time I close my eyes. I can still hear -" Interrupted by the elevator stopping at their training center, Laurel simply pressed the button to keep the door closed as the talked. "I can still hear his voice in my head when I read about Asgardian magic or their mythology or something. I can still see him sitting on the kitchen counter while I'm cooking. I see him in every bit of light that I conjure, in every..." She took a short breath, confessing that, "I go to New Asgard on this day every year because it's a day of mourning for the people they lost fighting Thanos. And for Loki. There's a speech and a ceremony and Thor's been in no condition to go, so Brunnhilde needs someone there. I know we need to move on, but it has to be me and I -"

Steve stepped over and gave her a hug, Laurel letting go of the button to hug him back. She didn't know that she had started crying until she was absolutely sobbing, clinging to him as the elevator doors opened. "I haven't moved on. We all say we have, but when we lose the loves of our lives... we go on dates, we try to make ourselves happy, and sometimes we move on to a point. But there's always going to be a space in your heart for them," he told her, clearly speaking from experience. "Go. Go get dressed up and do whatever it is you do. I'll keep Nat from asking questions."

Hours later, Laurel found herself standing in front of a crowd in the town square of New Asgard. Norway was a lot colder than the Avengers facility was, the wind whipping around them as they waited for her to begin. Brunnhilde stood next to her in full armor, Laurel in her Asgardian robes, the robes she kept in the back of her closet and only wore once a year, just for this speech. She hated looking at them, the shining green and gold only reminding her of wearing them in happier times. "Good luck," Brunnhilde offered, Laurel nodding as she stepped up to the podium.

"Five years ago today, I lost... I lost the love of my life. We all want to move on in a healthy way, but we all lost so many people that day, and so many people later on. Today we remember all of them. Today we remember what's been done to our community. But I know we remember it every day, when we sit down at breakfast and still set that missing place. We remember it when we go to call our children in for dinner, and we add in that name of someone who's gone, out of habit. We remember it at night when we go to lie down and find the other half of the bed empty. Together, though, we make Asgard string. Asgard is a people, not a place. And we've lost a lot of those people. We will never be the same, and we may never be okay. But we have each other, and that... That is so important." Her eyes swept over the crowd as the spoke, seeing several people crying already. Keeping her voice as steady as she could, Laurel continued. "I have a friend who I love dearly, who leads a group of people who lost someone. He told me once that there's always hope, even in times like these. Even though we might not see it, we have to reach for it. We can never give up on the people we've lost. They're part of the people we've become. We may have lost them, but we can never lose what they've taught us, the love that they showed us, and the people we've become because of them. Part of every one of those people lives in us, and nothing is ever truly the end. Thank you for embracing me as one of your people. Thank you for letting me come here. Thank you for everything. I love you all."

No one applauded when she stepped down. The never did. Instead everyone would join hands for a moment of silence, an ending that Laurel liked a lot better. The Asgardians loved her, but no matter her title, she was always still human. She wouldn't have wanted them to applaud anyway. As Brunnhilde stepped forward to announce their moment of silence, Laurel looked off to the cottage on a hill above the village. She could make out a figure standing in the window, watching her, as he had for every ceremony in the last five years. He nodded, Laurel nodding back solemnly. He had heard.

* * *

Laurel returned home late that night, coming back to a quiet compound. Nat's light was off, but she expected as much. She was usually up walking around or video conferencing some of the others. Steve, however, should have been up. Now that he knew where she was going, she fully expected to find him waiting for her, but his room was also dark. Once Laurel had changed out of her Asgardian robes, she came back, knocking on his door to no avail. "Steve? C'mon, you're starting to worry me. Steve?"

Her worry giving out, Laurel swung open the door, creeping through the dark living quarters until she came to his room. Nothing. Then suddenly a burst of movement. The creak of a door. Footsteps behind her. The lights flicked on as she reached for the closest thing she could use as a weapon. "Hey there, killer, it's just me." Steve stood in the doorway, chuckling at the sight of her holding an umbrella like she could take Thanos down with it. "You actually missed something while you were out, unlike most days. We have a guest. Do you remember Ant Man?"

"So this time travel thing could work? And Bruce is behind it too? So it's a decently sound idea?" Laurel sat at Steve's kitchen table a few minutes later, a mug of tea in hand. She had actually been turning the idea of time travel over in her head for a while, but without the Time Stone, she could only bend time so far backwards. Thirty seconds to be safe, up to three minutes if she wanted to risk the fate of the planet.

"It could work. We have to do it on the quantum level, though. I know you can travel through time a bit, with what Strange taught you, but that's only a couple of minutes, right? We're talking years. We get the stones before he does -"

"And he never gets them in the first place. We use them to bring everyone else back, because time isn't nearly as linear as we like to think," Laurel finished, taking a sip of her drink. "We can bring everyone back."

"Not everyone." Steve reached across the table, squeezing her hand. "We can bring back the people who disappeared in the snap. Before that... we can't promise ourselves anything. We can't even promise ourselves this, but we have to try."

Laurel nodded, deep in thought. "We have to try. We're assembling the Avengers tomorrow, I assume?"

"Bruce has some technical stuff to work on, but you should at least meet Lang. He's got his heart in the right place."

"Steve?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think it'll work?" She finally met his eye, looking for some sort of sign of the hope that she'd been losing bit by bit. "Without the Time Stone, it's awful risky. Even with the Time Stone, traveling through time isn't exactly safe."

He nodded. "It better. I don't know what I'll do if it doesn't."

* * *

It took days, and Tony adding himself to their project, to get a working system down. After several trial and error days, they had assembled the team, dividing up their objectives until they had formed three teams, ready to divide and conquer the stones. "Be careful out there," Laurel said, looking around at the faces of her friends, some of whom she'd seen fairly often and some she'd fallen out of contact with. "Be careful, and I'll see you all in a minute."

Being hurled through time and space felt like being on a roller coaster, in total free fall with almost no control over your landing. Suddenly Laurel found herself standing in New York in the past, Tony, Bruce, Scott, and Steve standing beside her. "We made it," she smiled, looking between the others. "I'll meet you in the tower. Someone needs to get eyes on the Hydra operatives and keep them out of the way." Her suit melted away, Laurel suddenly disguised as just another businesswoman working in Stark's tower.

Bruce went off to the Sanctum Sanctorum, the others following Laurel into the tower. She could hear the radio traffic as she staked out a spot in the lobby, but when a group of the Avengers came downstairs, she was struck by the man walking in the middle of them. She'd known that he would be there, but she hadn't seen him alive in years. As a disguised Tony moved in to intercept the briefcase containing the Tesseract, Laurel could tell something was off. She watched as Loki made his move, grabbing the Tesseract and disappearing as soon as Tony had distracted the rest of the guards.

"Hmm, no, I don't think so." Laurel had nearly mastered the Time Stone when she'd been training with Stephen, but without it, she could only manipulate time a little. Instead of a tidal wave, she could summon all of her magic and make a bit of a ripple in time. So she did. She wound back thirty seconds, Loki popping back into place with the Tesseract in hand. As she unfroze time, she grabbed Loki by the shoulder, hissing for him to stay put. Leaning over to address the men who were crowding Tony, She simply told them that, "Higher command has instructed me to take charge of the prisoner while you deal with this situation."

"Who are you?" one of them hissed. "Identify yourself, woman."

"My name is Laurel, and that's all you need to know. Hail Hydra," Laurel winked, the man nodding and turning back to Tony, who was still gasping for breath on the floor. She pulled Loki away as soon as the guards were distracted, dragging him into the stairwell and off into an office. She snapped her fingers and his shackles fell off, disintegrating into thin air.

"Well, you're clearly not one of them," he smirked, looking her up and down. "But who are you, Midgardian?"

"You're never going to believe me, but..." Impulsively, she reached out and hugged him, Loki standing there stiffly. When she took a step back, she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Alright, you must be insane," Loki scoffed as he crossed his arms. "No one does that and expects to survive, especially not a Midgardian such as you. You must know something that I do not, but..."

"I need you to trust me for a minute," Laurel blurted out, knowing that they didn't have much time at all. Loki raised an eyebrow as she stepped forward again.

"There is something familiar about you. However, I have never met you, have I? You certainly are some sort of witch. What do you want, you little peasant? Unless..." His expression changed as his eyes swept over her with a deeper hunger, Laurel shaking her head. "You've found me for a reason, Midgardian sorceress. A god would be a privilege, wouldn't it? But why would you risk your life to hunt me down and ask me to -"

"I need you to do something for me," she pressed.

"Well, that could be arranged, if you're comfortable with the glass elevator. Or would you prefer on top of that desk?"

Putting her index fingers to his temples, she opened the floodgates of memory, her memory, showing him what the next ten years held. It was just a few seconds, but the years of memories made him stagger back, sitting down on the desk and knocking a pile of papers onto the floor as he tried to catch his balance. "You... you're my... that is _not_ me. It cannot be. That is simply part of your trickery, is it not?"

"Loki, you know me. Not yet, but you will," she told him. "If you want to live in the future, you're going to have to believe me. A lot of people could make up one memory, maybe two. But the years you've given me - will give me - and the emotion... No witch is that good. Not even your mother."

His expression changed as he realized how much she knew. No one on Midgard would have known much about Friga at all. "If you are to be believed, you have given me - will give me? The greatest pleasures, the most astounding... you have shown - will show - me so much kindness, the deepest wells of love... and yet I have no idea who you are."

"But now you do. At least, you know who I become. You know who you become," Laurel said, taking his hands. Normally Loki would have swatted her away, but he held on, wondering about the connection that they shared, or would share, if this woman was to be believed. "I don't have much time. You should be back there... You're going to have to go back and disappear with the Tesseract like you were planning to. But in the future... before you decide to run at Thanos with a knife... hide. Hide and I can create a hole in that dimension for you to get to our future, to the future that I came from. I know you don't know me now, you don't trust me, you don't love me. But you... if you come to love me, please remember this and please hide. Make the best illusion you can and send that one out to fight him. But the real you cannot fight him, no matter how clever you think you are."

He nodded contemplatively, Laurel glancing out of the window before coming back over to where he was sitting. "That ring on your finger, is it..."

"Yes. Now you've got to get back out there. I'm going to meet you in the future on that ship, okay? It'll just be a moment for me, but -"

"If you do that, you will not be able to get back," Loki reminded her, seeing the transporter on her wrist. In an incredible gesture of generosity, he snapped his fingers, magically producing another vial of transport particles for her. "Now I guess we will both have to trust each other."

"Thank you. Now you need to go. Take the Tesseract and run." Loki only made it to the door before Laurel stopped him, grabbing his arm and making him hesitate. "Wait. If you'll indulge me -" He cut her off, leaning in for a kiss before sprinting out of the door, leaving her staring down the hall after him.

When he had rounded the corner, Laurel snapped her fingers, changing into fighting gear before readying herself for another trip through space and time. Bracing herself for the dizzying forces that hurled her through the universe, she took one last look around before jumping into the future.

* * *

The ship was just as she remembered it, the screams of the dying Asgardians echoing off of the walls and sparks flying everywhere. Laurel crouched behind a fallen pillar, watching as her past self held onto Loki, their small group of friends banding together to provide some sort of support in such an uncertain time. As Loki stepped forward, she watched him bow to Thanos, trying to discern if it was still the real Loki or not. He rose, the tiniest shimmer glinting off of his hair. Laurel smiled to herself, knowing that it was an illusion.

"Don't scream," the real Loki whispered, popping up next to her with a hand over her mouth. Laurel jumped a little, but turned to look at him, ignoring the action happening in front of them as the fake Loki was dying. She could hear herself screaming, but she paid no attention. Loki leaned forward and kissed her softly, Laurel knowing that this Loki had lived with her for years and had come to love her, unlike the Loki she had seemingly just left.

"I haven't stopped thinking about you appearing in that tower," he confessed, taking her hand. "At first I had no idea what you were talking about, but when I met you, properly met you, I saw everything again. I knew what I had to do from that moment onward. There was no way I could tell that version of you, the past you, but I knew. I knew how everything would fall out, but I had to make the same moves, and I must have, because here we are," he whispered. "Now I know I have to duck into a pocket dimension for a while, but I just have to tell you that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of the pain I'm going to put you through - have put you through, after today." He paused as Laurel, the Laurel who had just watched Thanos kill his body double, cried out again.

Squeezing his hand, she assured him that, "It's okay. It was the worst pain in the world, but it's over, now that you're here. Kind of. But you've got to jump into the dimension I'm going to create and jump out at the right moment, even though I have no idea what the right time is going to be. Some time close to when All of us travel back in time."

Loki nodded, leaning forward to kiss her again. "We have to go soon, before the ship blows up. I've seen how this goes"

"Okay." Laurel opened a portal in the floor, saying, "It's right through here, just like jumping through the Bifrost. Try to time it right, though. Be careful, and good luck."

"I love you."

"I love you too." She kissed him once more, holding on as long as she could before he nodded, jumping into the portal and letting Laurel close it behind him.

As the ship began to shake and literally crack, Laurel reached for her transporter, popping back into the present, or the present as they knew it.

* * *

"He's not here," Laurel sighed, Bucky putting an arm around her. They stood in the forest, watching as Sam confronted an aged Steve, a Steve who had gone back to live the life he had always wanted, or so it seemed. "At least Steve made it to this point, but I don't think Loki's coming back. I've lost... almost everyone. Well, I will soon. Nat's gone, and Steve - we know Steve doesn't have much time left. And Loki's gone. He missed his jumping-off point weeks ago. I'm glad I still have you, Buck."

"He told you about this before, didn't he? Steve?"

"Yeah. He and I were talking about it last week, and he said... he wanted to go back to her, but he knew he had a duty to protect the stones and make sure they went where they were supposed to go. The Aether had to make its way to Asgard, the Tesseract had a lot of places to go, the Time Stone had to get to Stephen... He and I have started to talk again, actually. Maybe we can finally be friends, at least of a sort. But Steve told me... he had the life he wanted, but he also spent a lot of it traveling to protect the stones and make sure they got where they had to be to set things right. Well, almost right. Stephen and I checked in on him at a few points, which was nice, but I think it's better if we stay here, in our own timeline, with everything just moving forward. We may long for the past and be tempted now that we have the Time Stone so close by, but... it's better this way. Not better, but right. What's done needs to stay done."

Bucky kept his eyes on Sam and Steve, telling her that, "I've hopped around time and space enough to know that after a while, we just need to keep going. We can't get them back, not Nat, not Tony, not Steve, not Loki. We do what we can, but we have to stop wishing we did things differently. Sometimes the people who are dead stay dead, even in our crazy world. Loki missed the jumping-off point for a reason, just like Steve did. Maybe he got in trouble. Maybe he found somewhere he wanted to go, another reality that he thought would be better than staying in this one. Maybe -"

"Maybe he's just an idiot who jumped a little too far," came a familiar voice from behind them. They spun around to see Loki standing there, looking just like he had aboard the doomed Asgardian ship. Laurel ran and engulfed him in a hug, Loki kissing the top of her head. "I've watched you for the last five years. I'm so sorry for everything I put you through, for all of the grief. I've watched over you and protected you as best I could, but that will never make up for any of it," he whispered. "There were many times I wanted to reach out to you, but it would have changed everything, at least a little bit, and I couldn't risk that."

"It's okay." Laurel could feel herself starting to cry as she held onto him, not quite believing that he was actually there, that he was real, that it was the same Loki she had both seen die and had saved from the marooned ship. "It's okay. You're here now. You're here now and that's what matters."

"Love?"

"Hmm?" She finally looked up at him, noting the caring in his eyes. It hadn't been more than a few minutes for him, but he had also seen the last five years of horror that she and the others had been through. He couldn't help but feel bad for her. "What is it?"

"Why don't we spend some time helping to build New Asgard? We get a little cottage on the edge of the sea and help them all bounce back, the people who were dusted and the people who stayed. We live there for a few years before we even think about rebuilding the majesty and splendor of the old realm. You can open a portal and travel here whenever you wish, so you can see everyone and help train the newest group of heroes," he proposed, "but we can also finally rest."

"Loki, I know you. You won't be content resting in a little fishing village for too long."

"Well, someone will need to teach the village children to do Asgardianmagic. We must not lose Asgardian traditions, even if Asgard is now part of Midgard, which is all sorts of odd, to say the least. And after a few years, we see what part of the world needs saving. Someone always needs it."

* * *

They all spent the evening together in the newest Avengers Facility. To Laurel, it felt wrong, being there without Tony, even though he had moved to the country some years before. And Nat. Nat had been a fixture there, constantly running phone conferences with people across the universe and gathering intelligence. Steve was no longer the friend she had known, even though he had only been missing for a few seconds. He had decided to move back to the facility, since Peggy had died years before. But things would never be the same.

Sure, the compound was busy. Plenty of people lived there, or came and went as they pleased. Everything felt different, though, and Laurel was somewhat glad that Loki didn't want to stay. That night, after everyone had gone off to bed, they laid down together, settling in like they always had. To Laurel, it had been five years since she was able to fall asleep next to him. To Loki, it had only been a couple of days at most.

"This isn't the way I wanted all of this to happen. Tony and Nat weren't supposed to have to die. And Steve... I'm glad he was finally able to rest and be happy, but... does it get any easier?" She looked up at Loki, who raised an eyebrow, the moonlight bathing his face in shadows as he leaned in to kiss her forehead.

"Does what get any easier, dear?"

"Losing people. You've been alive for hundreds of years, and I know you've lost so much. Does it ever get any easier?"

"No, and I don't think I would want it to. Watching you over the last five years, watching you mourn and... it never changes. You grow from it, but it never gets any easier. From now on, though, I promise that I will do my best to stay alive, so you don't have to pull anything like that again," he smiled, drawing her closer. "I've seen what it's done to you. I'm so sorry."

Laurel sighed, leaning into his chest. She hadn't forgotten this feeling,but she had longed for it for ages. 1,873 days, if she had counted properly. Over five years. "Thank you. Just don't let go."

Neither of them had any clue what the future would bring. It was a strange time for sure. Taking it one day at a time was their only option, the only way to heal. Not to heal, per se, since they would be forever changed, forever wounded by those they had lost and all of the sacrifices that they had made to get where they were. But they would grow. They would grow, and they would change, and they would keep on living. That, they discovered, was the true balance of the universe. Not equilibrium, but growth.


	110. Still Haven't Stopped Writing

I meant to just write a bit as a warm up before I got to work on my novel, but this kind of just happened... less of a warm up and more of an evening of writing, but it's still practice, I guess. So enjoy my random idea turned into something cute.

* * *

Laurel and Peter had gotten home from a diplomatic mission a few hours before the others made it back to the facility. They had gotten the easy job of negotiating a peace treaty with a rebel group in Sokovia, while much of the rest of the team had flown out to battle a rogue group of Chitauri soldiers who had landed in Nevada. Thor was busy getting Asgard settled and ensuring that everything went back to normal as they took over their planet again. Brice was guest lecturing at an NYU symposium on nuclear energy. The rest of them, however, had flown off to Nevada, even taking Loki with.

When they'd gotten back, she and Peter were surprised to find that the facility was still completely empty. So Laurel had called for a couple of pizzas while they got themselves cleaned up, taking showers and changing out of their formal clothes. "So how are things with MJ?" Laurel asked, reaching for another slice.

Peter was saved by the door opening, a weary group of fighters coming in from the jet hangar. Tony looked exhausted, leading them in and saying that, "We can get everyone patched up just fine. What matters is we won."

Nat was sporting a busted lip, but looked fine otherwise. Steve looked a little more battered, covered in dirt and a shining bruise on one of his cheekbones. he flexed his hand like he might have broken a finger, but Laurel could tell it didn't hurt that much. Badly bruised, sure, but not broken. Sam had a nasty gash on his arm, which they had wrapped up on the Quinjet. Loki limped in behind them, grimacing a bit, but lighting up when he caught sight of Laurel.

She jumped up, coming to give him a hug despite the dirt her was covered in. Loki inhaled sharply, Laurel stepping back. "Are you okay?"

"I need a shower," he sighed, brushing past her and heading for his room. "I'm fine. Just tired, love."

Laurel frowned, following him as the others either dusted themselves off and grabbed a slice of pizza or went to go patch themselves up, Peter excitedly asking questions about the mission and telling them about what they had missed in Sokovia. Loki had shed some of his armor, sitting down on the edge of the bed to unlace his boots. "Are you sure you're okay?" Laurel asked, seeing that he was gritting his teeth. "Loki, you're limping. Something's wrong. You're clearly in pain. What happened to you?"

"I'm perfectly fine," he insisted, standing up to throw more of his armor into a pile. He turned to her and held up his hands, saying, "See? Just fine."

"You're awfully pale for being just fine," Laurel frowned, coming over to where he stood. Gently, she reached out and poked him in the side, Loki howling in pain and drawing away like he had been hit by lightning. "I wouldn't call that fine at all."

"It's okay. Don't -"

Laurel had already held a glowing hand up to his side. "You broke at least two ribs, probably three. Your lung's fine, thank the gods, but still, you're not fine. Not even close. What happened to you?" She had already begun unlacing the bracers from his arms, setting them aside.

"I saved that foolish friend of yours when he'd lost his shield, but I was sideswiped by one of their ships," he sighed as she gently pulled off his armor, placing everything in a pile to clean later. "It sent me right into the rather rocky ground, from a fairly unpleasant height."

Knowing that it was likely a lot more dramatic than that, Laurel went to go turn the shower on, telling him that, "I'll do what I can to heal you when you get out, but I've dulled the pain as much as I safely can for now."

"I can tell. Thank you, love." He smiled a bit, leaning in to give her a kiss before disappearing into the bathroom.

By the time he reappeared, Laurel had cleaned off all of his armor, hanging everything up again. She'd made tea and brought in plates for both of them, and had practically built a nest out of pillows. "Come here, you," she smiled, getting up to meet him in the middle of the room. Now she could clearly see that his right side was covered in bruises and scratches, like he had fallen and landed on the rocky desert floor pretty quickly. Raising a hand, she let a glowing light spread up his arm, healing the gashes and the nasty black-and-blue marks in seconds. "You might want to lay down for the next part."

He knew what was coming, and that Laurel would do everything she could to keep him from being in pain, but he still hesitated. Lying down on his left side, he took a deep breath as Laurel pulled his shirt up, apologizing in advance. She extended her left hand, Loki holding it in both of his own. "I'm ready."

"You sure?"

"Just do it." He held onto her, bracing for the pain tat he knew was coming, no matter how much magic she used. "Hurry up."

She set her right hand on his side, magically drawing his ribs back into place with an audible crack. Loki squeezed her hand tightly, whimpering a bit as she essentially re-broke his bones in order to reset them. "Sorry." She bent down to kiss his cheek as she cast another spell that would hold his ribs in position until they were able to fully heal. She dulled the pain as much as she could, but she knew that he could still feel it acutely. "I wish there was more I could do, but magical overdosing is a bit harder to reverse than if you'd had too much pain medicine."

"It's okay," he assured her through gritted teeth, Laurel helping him sit up when he had caught his breath. "Thank you."

Helping him get settled, Laurel conjured a cup of tea, passing it over. "You're probably not too hungry, but I saved us some food just in case."

"You're too good to me." He took a sip of his drink, Laurel noting how weak he still looked. Sue, gods healed faster than most people, but he would need a week or so at least. Things like this still took time.

"I know." Laurel settled in beside him, saying, "You're going to have to take it easy for a little while. No running ultra-marathons with Steve."

"I hardly think there's any danger of that." Loki ate slowly, clearly still in pain. He wasn't hungry, but he knew that he needed something in his stomach. The healing spells wouldn't take hold properly if he was starving, no matter how much he didn't feel like eating. "How was Sokovia?"

"It was a productive trip, but I know we're going to end up back there. The factions that have broken off from the provisional government aren't going to settle down just because their leaders signed a couple of agreements. You know it just doesn't happen that way."

"Well, you managed to broker peace with warring realms before. This should be no problem," Loki offered. "I have seen you manage to work out far worse."

"If you put that silver tongue to good use, you could have stopped the Sokovian civil war months ago," she sighed. "You would make a good diplomat."

"I'd put this silver tongue to good use if I didn't have a bunch of broken ribs," he smirked, handing her his plate. He winced, remembering that he shouldn't be moving too much. Even so, he was still able to smile a bit. "It's a bit hard to move at the moment, though. As you Midgardians say, you'll have to take a rain check."

Laurel vanished their plates with a sigh. "I know you would, but you'd probably puncture a lung. You will puncture a lung if you're not careful. Here, just lay down. It's late enough to sleep."

"Will you stay here?" The worry in his voice was evident, no matter how much bravado he tried to use to mask it. No matter how much of a mask he put on, the insecurity bled through, at least with her. She could see it, even if he hid it in front of other people. Laurel had to reassure him without seeming too ostensibly reassuring, put him at ease without seeming too comforting, be there without sounding like she pitied him. She did pity him, knowing everything he had been through. But he could never know. When he was injured, when he was tired, when he was trapped in a haze of bad memories, the worry would bleed through. "Please?"

"Of course." She leaned in to kiss him, vanishing their drinks. "I'm gonna go brush my teeth before bed, though."

On the way back to her room, Laurel ran into Steve in the hall. They agreed to catch up more the next day, since they were all falling asleep on their feet. But he did admit that, "He saved my life, you know. You've given me a lot more faith in Loki, but I think the others are really starting to see it too. He isn't always a good guy, but none of us are."

When she returned a few minutes later, Loki was limping back to his bed, turning to give her a pained smile. "I never thought brushing my teeth would be this painful."

"Come here, you." She ducked under his arm, helping him walk a little further. She was careful to be as gentle as possible laying down next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder as she dimmed the lights.

"Laurel?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you for staying."

"Of course," she answered, putting a warm hand to his side and dulling the pain a little more. "Now try to get some sleep. It's the best thing for you right now."

It was true, at least for a little while. Loki closed his eyes, finally letting a wave of exhaustion overtake him. Laurel fell into a solid sleep soon after, but was woken up by Loki's voice early in the morning. He was talking in his sleep, Laurel catching him before he could roll onto his right side. "I'm not a monster... not a monster," he mumbled in frustration, "not a monster! Please, I'm not..."

"Loki." Laurel shook his shoulder softly, trying to wake him up without startling him too much, "C'mon, wake up." He bolted up in bed, immediately howling in pain. "Ssh, come here." She sat up, weaving a golden patch out of strings of light and lowering it onto his side. "Better?"

"Thank you, love," he breathed, looking around as he pushed his hair out of his eyes. Taking stock of his surroundings, he was able to relax, realizing that he was safely with her. No one was after him. It was just the two of them. "I... thank you."

"It's fine," she said, rubbing his back as he caught his breath. "I wish I could just knock you out and let you get some peaceful sleep, but I don't think that's a good idea, given the circumstances."

"Like I said, it's fine. You don't have to worry about me."

"Hmm, I always worry about you. I worry about what I'd do without you."

Loki smiled, reaching out for her hand in the darkness. "I have no idea what I'd do without you, love."


End file.
